Tens of thousands march in Berkeley

-page 4 - AN ANALYSIS: Is U.S. really on the eve of a maior repression? --see pageS

\\ T~e streets of out c.oullt. Th . . ry are in ~ ·• · e untversities a~ filled w'th 1i ·11lrmo;/, be.llin9 and riofino. G,hl . ' s llclent4 re- ~ ;.;~ rnurusts are t6A des ·i·nroy our countru. "R.• u 55; · . . .· ~kin, +o "' th h. ./. .· a IS tnre m . Wt · . . er m~t And th · ·· a erun, U.s v d · · ~ teputlk is in d tes, an,g~r from within and 'Niiho it anser. law and order I Yes wi+f ~~· u. We ne~a . • ' ·~ow, awana. o d. . our natron cannot- S(Jrv· · r er our .sfo II IVe .. '• Y-Jf: Sha\1 w an r. - A~olf all't bur3, Ge

Photo by Angela Vintber AN ECHO? A growing number of U.S. politicians are mouthing labor movement as Hitler did before he began "restoring law phrases similar to the famous quotation from Hitler depicted and order." The scene here is from the University of California here. The problem of the U. S. politicians is that they are bogged at Los Angeles where, May 26, 30 percent of the 32,000-member down in Vietnam and facing mounting militancy of black, brown student body joined a strike in solidarity with embattled Berkeley and other third world people, as well as a spreading youth students. It was an unprecedented action for UCLA which has radicalization. With all these difficulties, and more, they are lagged behind general campus militancy. hardly in a position to smash such forces plus a highly organized Page 2 THE MILITANT Friday, June 13, 1969

Berkeley under occupation THE MILITANT Editor: HARRY RING Business Manager: BEVERLY SCOTT

Published weekly by The Militant Publishing Ass'n., 873 Broadway, New York, N.Y. 10003. Phone 533-6414. Second-class postage paid at New York, N.Y. 'Welcome to Prague' Subscription: domestic, $4 a year; foreign, $5.50. By first class mail: domestic ~~~ers and Canada $10.50; all other countries, $15.00. Air printed matter: domestic and Canada, $15.00; Latin America, $24.00; Europe, $28.00; Africa, <\ustralia, Asia (including USSR), $33.00. Write for sealed air postage rates. SiKGed articles Berkeley, Calif. by contributors do not necessarily represent The Militant's views. These are ex­ Our house is about 10 blocks pressed in editorials. down Telegraph Ave. from the f~~~>~"r perimeter of what became the "war Vol. 33- No. 24 Friday, June 13, 1969 zone". During the height of the reade·rs occupation the contrast between The closing news date for this issue was June 6. areas was somewhat fantastic: in This column is an open forum our area shoppers were going for all viewpoints on subjects of a bout doing their usual thing general interest to our readers. while just up the avenue troop trade relations with Spain as class when he writes that the fllm "fo­ Please keep your letters brief. Where collaborationist. cuses in on a happily married carriers were careening, gas necessary they will be abridged. bombs going off and continuous The difference between Cuba couple who are suddenly thrust Writers' initials will be used, names and the Soviet Union and China into the tensions, horror and ter­ battles between the cops and stu­ being withheld unless authorization dents going on. Driving into the is that the latter two are willing ror of war." Of course, they are is given for use. campus area was likedrivinginto to provide special economic and not "happily married" and I am a war zone with streets blocked technical aid to even the most sure were he to see the film again Trl••...... ,_b•RoNrtStlonoll Mr. Constant would realise this. off by the Guard and the fuzz Episode in the bushes' a demonstrator reactionary regimes. As in Paki­ One in thought he could sneak past National stan, the Soviet and Chinese bu­ More important, becauseoftheir and an eerie atmosphere of incon­ Guard security lines around the home of back, "Its unbelievable, absolutely Chancellor Roger Heyns, but as he chose reaucracies sometimes even pro­ sinister nature, are his assump­ gruity in the contrast between The Hand his spot and emerged, several soldiers areas came through. unbelievable" in a shocked and were waiting. More pictures, Page 15. vide military aid which is used tions about art and reality. The The National Guard call-up of­ frightened sort of way. Another against the revolutionaries of reviewer's attitude is that if this fered some significant insights into Guardsman, who was a buddy those countries. is Bergman's "antiwar statement," the attitude of the Gis in the army of one of the Young Socialists, Furthermore, the Soviet and specifically inspired by the war in today: We would drive up to a told him, "These cops have gone Chinese leaderships are willing to Vietnam, he'd better demonstrate barricade and as we got there the crazy. You better watch out. They Distortions subordinate support to revolu­ that he is "positive" about the are out to kill people!" Guardsmen would approach, tionary movements in other coun­ liberation fighters and shows the The authorities quickly became good guys and bad guysforwhat very stem, serious and tense and of capitalist press tries to their own trade or diplo­ we expected to be asked for our cognizant of the "fraternization" matic interests. They place narrow they are, etc. passport. But the fellow would and its possibilities and attempted national needs, as defined by the Unfortunately, this is very remi­ all sorts of devices and ruses to Berkeley, Calif. ruling bureaucratic caste, over niscent of the manner in which come up, look in the window and According to the caption under say, "Hello," and I would say neutralize it. The Guardsmen were and above the needs of the world Stalin and his associates dealt broken up into platoons with a this photograph on the frontpage revolution- a policy which in the with artists and writers in the something about having a busi­ of the May 22 issue of the Oak­ ness up the avenue and he would Berkeley cop in charge of each. long run can only weaken those Soviet Union. We all know the land Tribune, the YSAer pictured seem relieved and wave us The press began printing "warn­ workers states themselves. tragic consequences of this for through. ing stories" about innocent above was apprehended by Na­ Cuba has not carried out a the arts as well as their creators. The apartment building above Guardesmen who had taken tional Guardsmen. However, they similar policy, and that is one Mr. Constant would not leave our headquarters has a large ban­ brownies cooked with Alice B. didn't figure on the training at reason we do say there is a dis­ much room for Bergman to whom ner floating outside ... "Wel­ Toklas stuff and oranges with sneaking through bushes he re­ tinction between the line of the reality seems to be more complex come to Prague," a familiar sign other stuff injected into them and ceived as a soldier in Vietnam. Cubans and that of Moscow and than it does to our "critic." For throughout the city. One large the Guardsmen had "turned on". HE GOT AWAY!. Peking. the latter, as it has been for the apartment building has a banner And Guardsmen were warned to R.F. Mary-Alice Waters party pundits in the Soviet Union floating outside saying, "Yankee not take food from the students. since the later 1920s, reality is Go Home." These stories, when run down, simply black-white, positive-nega­ When the Guard first arrived proved false. The Guardsmen A question Our critic criticized tive, good-bad, revolutionary­ there was confusion and tenseness, were not fed well; the Army trucks counterrevolutionary, prole t a­ would go around distributing the but the students rapidly grasped on Cuban trade dan-bourgeois, etc. Mr. Constant the fact that the Guardsmen were renowned horse-stuff sand­ for 'socialist realism' seems to have more in common primarily men who had joined wiches, dry and insufficient, and with Glavlit, Proletcult and the to avoid the draft. Most of them I watched a Mess Wagon pull Philadelphia, Pa. Minneapolis, Minn. On Guard people while Bergman, were not the very model of a up and only one guy out of the It is enlightening to know that Please allow me to make a few in looking at the human dilemma modem soldier ... they would over 50 went up to get his tray Mao and his followers can be comments on Mr. Malachi Con­ in time of war, seems to have more handle their rifles in a too-casual of the proverbial shingle fare, class-collaborationists when it is stant's review of Ingmar Berg­ in common with Babel, Zamyatin, manner, swinging them about dis­ the remaining Guardsmen refus­ politically expedient for them to man's film Shame in The Mili­ Fedin and Pilnyak. It is ironic dainfully, and usually, as soon ing to eat the stuff. do so (Sukarno, Ayub Khan, etc.) tant of May 16. that the socialist-realist-dogmatist as their officer left their area they Almost every corner would have and this teaches us that politicians First of all Mr. Constant did not minds should be at work in the would either lie down or sit down a platoon of Guardsmen engaged are politicians whether they are see the film carefully. This is evi­ Trotskyist movement. and schmooze around in an aim­ in discussion with many students Maoists, Stalinists, or whatever dent from theveryfirstparagraph V.P. less sort of way. and the dialogue was great. "good" kind of Communists. KPF A reported that the Guards­ The General in charge of the Mary-Alice Waters does a beauti­ men printed and distributed a leaf­ Guard had just returned from a ful job of exposing the collabo­ let of their own objecting to the command in Vietnam. That might rationist weaknesses of China and occupation and stating their desire have influenced his thinking in the Russia in the process of defending to go back home. The first 2,500 now infamous gas bombingofthe Cuban Communism. (The Mili­ were called up from the sur­ University At one time the sheriffs tant, May 3 0, 1969 issue.). But rounding San Jose and Hayward helicopter landed to complain she clearly fails to mention the area and many of them knew peo­ about some students flying kites collaborationist weaknesses of ple in Berkeley. The "V' sign be­ and telling them to stop for fear Cuban Communism. Is Waters came so common, it became an of entangling the rotors. The stu­ not aware of the ties between Cuba accepted practise ... Students dents then organized mass kite­ and Franco Spain-class collabo­ would "V' Guardsmen, who would flying and many references to rationists ties? return the compliment. London under siege came forth. I'll never understand why One of the Guardsmen inter­ One reporter cites his attempt Castro feels it necessary to trade viewed stated, "We don't expect to seek out the U. C. chancellor with Franco and fascism. Colla­ to shoot anyone ... I couldn't and finally found him, "alone, boration with fascism is not ex­ ... it's very emotional; you tend in a dark room quietly smoking cusable. to see the peoples' point of view." a pipe." This was shortly after C.L. Leaning out of the Socialist he had authorized a press release Workers Party headquarters, stating: "The fence was necessary which was in the battle zone, I to permit the kind of rational yelled to some Guardsmen discussion and planning that ... and a reply strolling below, "What do you wasn't possible before." think Buddy?" One of them yelled Paul Montauk New York, N.Y. Revolutionary Marxists have never criticized the leadership of the Soviet Union, Cuba, or any of the workers states for having trade relations with the capitalist countries, even the most reaction­ ary ones. For example, it is worth remembering that for roughly 40 years there was only one country in the world that abolished capi­ IF YOU SUPPORT talist property relations- the USSR- and that country had no The Antiwar Movement. The Blaclr Liberation Struggle. The fight for choice but to trade with capitalist countries. Socialist Democracy in Eastern Europe. A Socialist America. • • Like Cuba, the USSR was block­ aded and subjected to intense eco­ YOU BELONG IN THE YSA! nomic pressures. The Soviet leaders were totally justified in ex­ ------clipandmail ------ploiting the divisions amongstthe Young Socialist Alliance, Box 471 Cooper Station, New York, N.Y. 10003. capitalist countries to the ad­ vantage of the revolution by trad­ D I would like more information D I wont to join the YSA ing with whatever countries would supply them with the goods they Nome . desperately needed. Address . The same is true with Cuba "lmilgine if you will, gentlemen, a row of dominoes" today, and that is why it is in­ City...... Stole .. . . Zip ..... San Francisco Chronicle correct to characterize Cuba's Friday, June 13, 1969 THE MIUT ANT Page 3

!ROCKEFELLER TRIP Peru Oqsts U •~: Military A ides GOVERNOR STARTS 'I ROCKEFELLER-MET -~~~ROCKEFELLER CUTSI ROCKEFELLER VISIT 1 ISETS OFF ACLASH And::a::. 1 ~ t by" ~:~~~ler 2DLEG OF MISSION I BY STRIF~ !~QUITO HIS BOLIVIAN VISIT' TO VENEZUELA OFF

Hondur~n;t~~e~t~illed by lo ~~;~:~~ ~;:~rr~~:~hes St~~~:t~e~:~~~en ~;i~~~~~-~ Talks Are Held at Airport to 1 IN PROTEST THREAT!

Police Gunfire in Protest- ! Avert Violence as Students ------By JUAN DE ONIS By JUAN de ONIS Governor Sees President Special toTh• "•wYorkTimes ; ''""'I toT''' 'ne of the dis-: I Rockefeller's arrival today. m Washington this morning. . orders. . ' T- . ...l'>·"'-""'"'""..c: --..:1- -J.. •

UNAPPRECIATIVE. As these New York owns and controls imperialist monopolies ning with the Brazil coup in 1964 is at an end. Times clippings indicate, students in Latin throughout their continent. The payoff was The struggles of workers and students in America apparently did not realize that Nel­ refusing to let Rockefeller visit .. his own" Argentina and Curacao coupled with Rocke­ son Rockefeller is a .. liberal" capitalist poli­ Venezuela. feller's rebuff by nearly every country he tician who really wanted to discuss their con­ Rockefeller's reception marked a new stage planned to visit mark May-June 1969 as ditions with them. Instead, they received him in the anti-imperialist struggle of Latin Amer­ Latin America's response to France's May­ with the welcome due any member of the icans and signified that the lull which followed June 1968. Yankee ruling class; particularly one who a series of right-wing military victories begin- Argentine students detonate labor revolt

By Gerry Foley Police shot their way into the head­ The poorer classes have suffered from the long that has shown its incapacity to assure ( IP)- The Argentinian military dictator­ quarters of the auto workers union where harsh austerity imposed by the regime. The the kind of order and stability the Argen­ ship headed by General Juan Ongania is the main labor leaders had gathered. middle classes have been alienated by the tinian capitalists and their imperialist pa­ in deep trouble. A series of student dem­ In the fighting in Cordoba, six persons army's arbitrary and primitive methods of trons require. onstrations were met with extreme police were killed and more than 4 00 arrested, rule. The example of students fighting the It is hard to see, however, what alter­ violence. This in turn engendered wide­ according to press reports. On June 1, police had a particularly compelling effect native the bourgeoisie now has to the rule spread sympathy for the students. The the special military tribunals began pass­ on the Argentinian workers, long demobi­ of naked force. workers sought to demonstrate their soli­ ing harsh sentences on the jailed strikers lized by their vacillating trade-union bu­ When the junta was installed, the revo­ darity through action. So powerful was and demonstrators. reaucracies. lutionary Marxists of the Partido Revo­ this upsurge that the unions, in defiance Fierce fighting was also reported in the "Now general labor support for the stu­ lucionario de los Trabajadores [Revolu­ of threats that they would be crushed by country's depressed northern province of dents seems to be developing rapidly," tionary Workers party] predicted: "This is military force and strikers would be liable Tucuman when unemployed sugar workers the New York Times wrote May 28. "One probably the last chance the bourgeoisie to the death penalty, staged a one-day besieged a government-owned railroad re­ small indication of this was a sign posted will have to establish a stable bourgeois general strike May 30 that shut down pair shop on the day of the general strike. on a shop window in Rosario after one government. After this regime, the situation the entire country. In Buenos Aires, as well as the big of the demonstrations there. It read, 'Sor­ can become openly prerevolutionary " On May 29, Argentina was placed under provincial cities, buses and taxis were ry. We should have helped you."' Browne, an observer more than sympa­ martial law and special military tribunals halted. The postal system was closed down. Massive fighting broke out May 21 in thetic to the Argentine capitalists, does not were set up, empowered to hand down The textile mills were silenced. All of the Rosario, the country's second largest city, offer a much brighter view for them: death sentences to those who refused to schools were closed. when the cops shot and killed a 15-year­ "Seasoned Argentine political observers obey the dictates of the military regime. The railroads- the country's most vital old youth. saw the Government facing two alterna­ Large contingents of police and troops transportation network - were also The upsurge brought the divided Ar­ tives: to yield and liberalize the regime, patrolled the major Argentinian cities. struck- despite the fact that they have gentinian labor movement together injoint or to apply the 'mano dura' (iron fist) The workers and their allies appear to been under direct military supervision since action and stiffened the backbones of a and start erecting firing squad parapets. have remained firm against the govern­ 1967 and harsh penalties can be imposed number of trade-union bureaucrats. After Either way, the country faced uncertainty, ment assault. on strikers. martial law was clamped down on Rosario turmoil and possibly civil war .... The Violent fighting swept the automobile In many areas, shopkeepers closed down May 22, the collaborationist faction of the weeks that follow seem certain to bring center of Cordoba during the day and night their businesses to demonstrate support CGT [Confederacion General del Tra­ major changes to Argentina with poten­ of May 30-31. News of the battles there for the workers and students. bajo- General Confederation of Labor ]led tially sweeping effects on all of Latin Amer­ shocked the country. "At the height of the The escalating protests that culminated by Vandor, joined with the "rebel" faction ica." fighting in Cordoba last night," Malcolm in the May 30 general strike were touched led by Ongaro in issuing a call for a Bro~ne wrote in the New York Times off in mid-May by student opposition to general strike. June 1, "Buenos Aires residents watched higher-priced meals in the cafeteria of the The broad front that shaped up in soli­ Boston offices dramatic sequences [on television] from Universidad del Nordeste [ UNE ]in Cor­ darity with the UNE students in the ini­ the northern industrial city showing waves dentes. tial confrontations provided one mare ex­ of policemen firing pistols at close range As a result of the government's decision ample of how a local university struggle of Unitarians into an advancing crowd of rock-throwing to turn the student cafeteria over to a can develop into a national conflagration workers." private catering firm, the price of meals under conditions like those in Argentina. was raised from 14 to 30 cents. This hit by sit-in meant a greater hardship for the students The shooting of Juan Jose Cabral drew Works by than might appear at first glance. The sharp protest. The provincial governor's By Roy and K. B. lnglee UNE students are the poorest in Argentina administrative deputy Rafael Marcheti re­ BOSTON- On May 21 the Interdenomi­ Rosa Luxemburg and the cost of their education is a heavy signed along with two professors at the national Radical Caucus, a left cauces in burden for most of their parents. Thus police schooL Two hundred UNE profes­ the Unitarian Universalist Association, be­ even small extra expenses entail added sors tendered their resignation. The Corri­ gan occupying the first floor of the Uni­ sacrifices. Furthermore, under the new sys­ entes medical federation and medical cal­ tarian Universalist Service Committee of­ tem the cafeteria would have been closed lege issued a joint statement expressing their fice at 78 Beacon Street to protest UUSC on weekends, forcing the students to eat "total and forthright repudiation of the bru­ complicity in the Vietnam war. at commercial restaurants where the lowest tal police action." Investigation of UUSC files had pro­ priced meals cost 2 00 pesos (56 cents). The shopkeepers' organization, the Aso­ duced letters showing that the committee's Resentment already ran deep among the ciacion de Provisionistas y Comerciantes de "social welfare" project in Cholon, Vietnam, students. The dictatorship's purges of the Corrientes [ Corrientes Association of Gro­ is funded and controlled by the U.S. State country's faculties had deprived Argentina cers and Tradesmen] closed their stores in Department Agency for International De­ of a considerable proportion ofits qualified protest against the government's treatment velopment and that prospective welfare scholars. Students feared that the level of the students. The priests in Resistencia workers are screened by the FBI before of education had been so debased that their across the river from Corrientes offered their departure for Vietnam. diplomas would be worthless. New decrees space in their cathedral for a student cafe­ According to Jack Zylman, assistant increasingly limited access to higher edu­ teria. minister of the Community Church, the cation. The broad nature of this front showed Radical Caucus intends to escalate the Banning of independent student organi­ that the vast majority of the people needed struggle until the demands of the sit-in zations and repeated police invasions of the only a vanguard to lead them into a strug­ are met. The demands include "immediate Accumulation of campus had produced a grim atmosphere gle against the junta. By the time of the withdrawal of the UUSCfrom Vietnam and Capital $4.50 of repression and reaction. Uniformed general strike May 30 the generals were all other AID programs" and "a massive Russian Revolution and policemen were stationed in many class­ faced by a massive array of opposition. program of reparations to the Vietnamese rooms. Government-appointed rectors The crisis of the Ongania regime shows and North American victims of the war in Leninism or Marxism? 1.65 ruled the universities like imperial pro­ what a hopeless perspective faces the mili­ Vietnam." What is Economics .95 consuls, oblivious to the needs of their tary dictatorships in Latin America. They Despite a local news blackout, the occu­ schools and alien to academic life. are incapable of solving the economic and pation is gaining support among area Junius Pamphlet 1.25 When the police suppressed a demon­ social problems facing their countries. In­ church circles. Supporters of the Radical Reform or Revolution .95 stration in the UNE cafeteria, gunning stead they exacerbate them and make them Caucus action include Florence Luscomb Spartacus Program .40 down the medicalstudentJuanJose Cabral, more explosive. of Women Strike for Peace, the Rev. Robert the simmering discontent boiled over into Whether or not Ongania has decided to Hohler, president of the UAA Ministers Merit Publishers violent protests. The student struggles trig­ resign, as is rumored, it seems certain that Association, the Massachusetts Bay Dis­ 873 Broadway gered popular opposition to the regime his regime has outlived its usefulness. It is trict of the UAA and the social action New York, N.Y. 10003 into actions of solidarity. unlikely that a government will survive for committees of various churches. Page 4 THE MILITANT Friday, June 13, 1969 Giant Berkeley march demands return of park

By Rick Feinberg police took up positions on the roofs of BERKELEY- Tens of thousands from buildings throughout the city. Large throughout the state converged on Berkeley groups of cops were "at the ready" only a May 30 to support the struggle for Peoples few blocks from the march. Two thousand Park and to protest the police violence. National Guardsmen were shipped into It was virtually impossible to estimate Berkeley. the size of the crowd, as it spread itself But the protesters had won their point half-way across Berkeley. A consensus and forced the police to conduct them­ estimate would be 30,000. One television selves peaceably. In the days leading to station reported that as many as 60,000 the march, it had become clear that greater were present. It was clearly the largest and greater public sympathy was on the demonstration in recent Berkeley history. side of the marchers. The turnout came in open defiance of In the face of the mounting pressure, a scare campaign conducted by the city, authorities began last Sunday to back county, and state officials. Alameda County down. The Berkeley City Council voted to Sheriff Frank Madigan stated the day be­ request Governor Reagan to lift the state fore the demonstration that he was pre­ of emergency, withdraw the outside police pared to order the use of shotguns once forces and National Guard, and to remove again. This comment made banner head­ the ban on civil liberties. Reagan, though lines in northern California for two days. refusing to lift the state of emergency proc­ In contrast to violent threats, the dem­ lamation, quickly responded by greatly re­ onstrators came in a festive mood. Rock ducing the number of police and military bands, flowers, singing, cheering charac­ forces and ending the banonpublicgather­ terized the march. Even a "Peoples Parti­ ings. The University announced thatitwas cipatory Marching Band" made an ap­ looking for a way of turning the park over pearance. A new park near the embattled to the people. It appeared that a victory Peoples Park was constructed unmolested. might be in sight. Not one hostile reaction was seen from As the march date approached and sup­ onlookers as the march went through sev­ port continued to grow, the authorities eral different sections of Berkeley. At sev­ began looking more and more frantically eral points cool-ade was given away, and for a way out of what promised to be a many residents turned on their garden mass political confrontation. No one hold­ hoses for the marchers to drink from or ing a position of responsibility, however, to cool themselves from the blazing sun. wanted to be seen as capitulating to the The Berkeley City Council had agreed pressure. Before long the people of Cali­ at midnight the night before to allow the fornia were beset by the spectacle of all march to go to the fenced-in Peoples Park. "their" public officials desperately trying When the marchers reached this point they to pass the buck to each other in what quickly put together street parks, laying might be described as a game of Musical BERKELEY MESSAGE. A page from an anonymous author's spiral notebook sod on the barren concrete of the street. Parks. pasted on a tree on Berkeley's Telegraph Avenue offered this message. Photo­ The fence was covered with thousands of The University Regents granted Chan­ graphed by Tom Buchwalter and silk screened by the YSA it became a Granma flowers and hundreds of signs demanding cellor Heyns of the Berkeley campus the Bookstore poster. a return of the park. A block-party at­ power to deal with the problem in virtually any way he saw fit. Heyns replied that the saying that the matter was a University mosphere prevailed as demonstrators con­ problem and hence should be solved with­ tinued to converge on theparkfromfarther only solution was for the City of Berkeley Draft resister in the University system. This was the than the eye could see. to lease the land from the University and situation up to 17 hours before the march The police, using Gov. Reagan's Viet­ then for the City to turn it over to the peo­ was scheduled to begin. nam-style pacification guidelines, had ple. And the City Council at its Tuesday convicted in Finally, on Thursday, May 29, the City made plans for violence. Shotgun-carrying night meeting refused to take the land, Council began to fold. They called a spe­ cial emergency meeting; despite the strong protests of Mayor Wallace Johnson, who Puerto Rico bitterly condemned the University for shirk­ By Robert Pearlman What the People's Park ing its responsibility, they passed a motion BOSTON- The U.S. government's ef­ to offer to lease the land from the Regents. fort to smash the growing Puerto Rican The park was still far from won, but this independence movement escalated last was a major victory and its impact was month as a U.S. court convicted the frrst strongly felt at the demonstration. of 93 Puerto Rican draft resisters, accord­ indicated about socialism While the demonstration occurred on a ing to a June 1 release from the Latin victorious note, the struggle for the park American News Service in Cambridge, BERKELEY- People's Park in Berkeley a long production line and never even gets is not over. The National Guard remains, Mass. has been the focus of a fierce struggle, to see the finished product. Consequently police units from throughout the state are During the trial Puerto Rican colonial and the significance of this struggle is be­ he becomes alienated from the production still here, the emergency law is still in ef­ police arrested 10 leading Independistas yond question. There are, however, some process and from the object he produces. fect, and the park is still fenced in. for "terrorisf' activity, and 200 Green Berets important lessons to be drawn from the He finds it impossible to relate to his job For the moment the University of Cali­ arrived in Puerto Rico to train National park itself, which the violent confronta­ in any human way. Work becomes a dull fornia Regents have the ball. They have Guard and police forces in riot control tions with the police have tended to obscure. routine which he is coerced into perform­ an offer from the city to lease the land and counterinsurgency techniques. In one sense the park represents a form ing and he has absolutely no interest in from them. What the Regents decide at their Edwin Feliciano Grafals was the frrst of escapism for people who have given up doing it well. next meeting will further determine the resister brought to trial. His conviction hope of changing American society. It is The situation in the park was quite dif­ struggle. represents a trial balloon for the U.S. certainly incorrect to believe, as do some ferent. No one was forced to work and Justice Department's attempts to stem the advocates of the park, that private proper­ the park developed spontaneously. People mounting resistance in Puerto Rico. During ty can be abolished by "ripping it off could do as much or as little as they chose, the trial the U.S. Attorney said, "If Feliciano piece by piece." and each shared in the benefits of the en­ Berkeley 3 win is set free, thousands of young people will However, the park does demonstrate very tire community's labor. "Street people," in­ defy the laws of the United States." dramatically how it is possible for people cluding some who had probably never Puerto Ricans are subject to U.S. Selec­ to live and work together, giving every­ worked a day in their lives, were to be tive Service regulations according to the thing they can for the benefit of the entire seen sweating under the hot sun. Even Jones Act of 1917, which imposed U.S. community. It provides a glimpse of what anarchists helped rope off areas and re­ delay on trial citizenship on Puerto Ricans in order to a truly free society has to offer. spected signs to keep out of sections being draft them into the U.S. Army in World Anyone who believes that socialism can worked on. Coercion, far from being neces­ War I. In his defense, Feliciano contended never succeed because people will not work sary, was never even contemplated because BERKELEY -A postponement to Au­ that Puerto Rican colonial subjects owe without some sort of profit motive need people realized that everyone would bene­ gust 13 has been granted in the trial of their allegiance only to Puerto Rico, not only to look at the park. One needs only fit from general adherence to a few simple the Berkeley Three -Jack Bloom, Peter to the United States. to see what human beings are capable of rules- their rules. Camejo and Paul Glusman-for conspir­ Feliciano is a militant of MPI, the pro­ acy to commit a misdemeanor. The post­ when they are working for themselves But capitalist society, such as it is, can­ independence movement, and FUPI, the rather than for some boss. not permit even the smallest island of free­ ponement was welcomed by the Berkeley Federation of University Students for Inde­ In capitalist society a man works at a dom to exist for long in its midst. The Three Defense Committee, since it allows pendence. single job eight hours a day, five days a university and the state swiftly moved in more time to reach people with the facts As in all trials i.n U.S. courts in Puerto week, year in and year out. He works not with incredible police terror in a desperate of the case. Their prosecution arose out Rico, it was required that the proceedings because he wants to but because he must attempt to wrest the park from those who of a UC sit-in protesting administration be conducted in English, restrictingthejury refusal to grant credits for a course taught sell his labor power to another human be­ had built it. almost exclusively to the rich, who are most by Eldridge Cleaver. ing if he is to continue to live. Thus this In a way it is rather ironic that the uni­ tied to the United States and most hostile Meanwhile Alameda County District At­ other human being comes to have abso­ versity has felt compelled to prevent peo­ to Puerto Rican independence. lute power over him and over the disposi­ ple from making a lot into a park when torney J. Frank Coakley has hinted om­ tion of everything he creates. Frequently they had intended to make it into some inously about possible conspiracy indict­ (and with increased specialization, to an kind of park anyway. ments in the recent People's Park contro­ ever greater degree) he is just one link on The fact that the land has been made versy. A different address into a park does not pose any threat to The San Francisco Medical Committee By James P. Cannon the university; it is the way the park was for Human Rights has officially endorsed for the summer? created which has them terrified. What the defense. Funds are being raised for THE I.W.W. frightens them is the fact that the people the defense, but much more is needed; Please notify us as early as possible most directly affected by the fate of the lot­ funds may be sent to Berkeley Three De­ Reminiscences of a participant of any change of address, including zip the residents of South Berkeley and the fense Committee, 2158 Emerson St., code. (And remember to include the campus community-took it upon their Berkeley, Calif. 94 705. old address.) SOc own authority to decide what should be The Berkeley Three Defense Committee done with that piece of property. And when notes the special importance of fighting Business office Merit Publishers the people at the bottom begin to make against conspiracy laws, under which the The Militant 873 Broadway the decisions which affect their own lives, Dr. Spock case, the New York Panther 17, 873 Broadway New York, N.Y. 10003 those at the top become nervous. the Chicago 8 and Los Angeles Chicano 15 New York, N.Y. 10003 -Rick Feinberg cases are all pending. Friday, June 13, 1969 THE MILITANT Page 5

Does U.S. face maior repression?

By Elizabeth Barnes acies" of a few, or as being "violenf' or One of the serious questions facing the "anti-democratic." radical movement today is how to wage The first task in response to any repres­ an effective defense against the growing sion is to expose these lies for what they numbers of attacks by federal and local are, and to make every effort to explain officials. The scope of the problem can concretely how it is the ruling class which be seen by listing just some of those who is undemocratic and which is using force have been victimized during the intensi­ to deny basic democratic rights. fication of the struggle this spring. There This means rejecting the infantile notion have been the sentencing to death of Ahmed held by some radicals today that civil Evans in Cleveland, the raid on the nation­ liberties are something which revolution­ al SDS headquarters and the arrests of SDS aries are too busy to defend and even leaders in various parts of the country, the something to scorn. police attack on the national convention of This theme appears in the April 24 the Republic of New Africa in Detroit, New Left Notes in a report on the situa­ attacks on Gis United and other GI pro­ tion at Kent State. "The repression at testers, the hundreds of arrests as well as Kent State has clearly hurt us," wrote court injunctions and police assaults on SDS regional organizers Terry Robbins campus activists, the use of guns for the and Lisa Meisel. "Over 60 of our people first time against white student demonstra­ have been banned from campus, at least tors in Berkeley and the continuationofthe 11 face heavy charges with total bail ex­ use of guns against black students in the ceeding $12,000, and the administration South. Hardest hit has been the Black has succeeded at least to some extent in Panther Party, which has suffered numer­ scaring a lot of people and obfuscating ous arrests on serious charges, as well our original demands, and allowing the as physical attacks by police. civil liberties whiz kids to spring up. As the num hers of court cases and as­ "On the other hand, SDS has made se­ saults begin to pile up, the movement veral key advances. We have fought and is faced with an important test. Will ef­ fought hard, making it clear that we are fective struggles be mounted to fight off serious and tough. We have constantly the attacks? Or will the government be at stressed the primacy of our four demands, least partially successful in its attempts to maintaining that political repression is only intimidate, isolate and victimize activists an extension of the peoples' oppression, and vanguard elements. never getting hung up in the civil liber­ In order to effectively combat any type tarian or pro-student-privilege defenses of of persecution-whether it be a witch-hunt, our movement." a physical assault or jailings and arrests­ Nothing could be a more costly mistake. the movement must first begin with a seri­ Any movement that seeks significant goals ous, thought-out analysis of the true rela­ obviously is going to be attacked. To tionship of forces in this country. Do the announce that you have no interest in victimizations represent, as many in the defending yourself can only whet the ap­ movement believe, the beginnings of a petite of the enemy and discourage poten­ period of deepening repression and reac­ tial supporters of your cause. tion? Do they, as both the SDS and Black Part of struggle Panther Party newspapers have indicated, The fight for democratic rights, for civil represent the danger ofimpendingfascism? liberties, is an indissoluble part of the Are the so-called "Mitchell raids" a reen­ struggle for major demands and for the actment of the Palmer raids of the 1920's, basic transformation of society. as has been suggested in the Guardian? Regardless of what false illusions they Obviously a period of general repression may have about the true nature of capital­ requires a different response and tactics ist democracy, most Americans are gen­ and strategy than does one of radical uinely concerned with democratic proce­ upsurge. dures-with justice and with fair play. Not fascism In every struggle their sympathy and sup­ If we examine carefully the nature of port will invariably go to those who they fascism in the concrete instances when it ALL-POWERFUL? Smoke hovered over the Capitol dome April 1968 as feel have justice on their side. That's pre­ has come to power, as in Germany and Washington's black ghetto rose up following the murder of Rev. King. The cisely why the enemy always tries to de­ Italy, it can very easily be seen that what scene epitomizes the spirit of revolt that permeates America's black communities pict the movement as an"undemocratic," we are experiencing in this country is today. This is combined with the blows being struck by the Vietnamese libera­ "lawless" "minority" that is seeking to impose certainly not fascism, nor even a strong tion forces, the unprecedented popular opposition to the war and the grow­ its views by force. The whole idea is to incipient fascist movement. Fascism means ing radicalization of the nation's youth. In sum, the rulers of this country persuade potential supporters that it's the complete smashing of all radical, rev­ are hardly in a position todecidetheyare simply going to put all of America's wrong and/ or dangerous to back the move­ olutionary, working class or opposition rebellious into concentration camps. ment and its demands. movements, be they trade unions, black But if the movement utilizes every oppor­ organizations or radical student groups. tunity to prove who is truly the minority Fascism means the end of any kind of see that the situation today has quite ob­ On the other hand, a strengthening of the that seeks to impose its views on the major­ democratic rights, not only for radicals vious differences. During the early '20s, movement's ability to defend itself would ity by force it can win significant support. and revolutionaries, but for the masses of patriotic and anti-Communist hysteria was provide a tremendous impetus to the win­ And if it appeals to people to defend its rampant in this country. American people as well. It means the end ning over of new forces. democratic rights, it will invariably win a A massive witch-hunt was touched off of free speech and the right of assembly, Much of the discussion in the radical response. Furthermore, in the course of by the government when Attorney General censorship of the press, the end of any press about "the repression" has empha­ involving people in the defense ofits rights, A. Mitchell Palmer began a national series kind of elections. It means concentration sized the strength of the reactionary forces. the movement has the very best opportu­ of raids in 1919-20, rounding up "sub­ camps for minority groups and radicals But, it is just as important to realize that nity to educate them and win them to the versive" foreign-born for detention and or for anyone who disagrees or resists. along with the attacks, there have also been issues it is fighting for. deportation. Incipient fascist movements start to pose some important victories in overcoming Those who would reject a struggle for The American Legion, a vicious red­ them. The Oakland Seven recently won their the defense of the movement against at­ a real danger when their demagogy begins baiting force, was powerful enough in this to have an appeal to masses of people encounter with the authorities hands down. tack are really demonstrating a lack of atmosphere to intimidate entire communi­ Gis United Against the War has beenfaced confidence in the capacity of the movement and when they have the strength to orga­ ties and even physically assault such things nize gangs of fascist thugs who are given with 10 arrests in the last three months to fight back or in the capacity of others as union Labor Day parades. Racism was and they have won every one of their to respond to an appeal for support to free reign to physically attack, break up widespread and the black people virtually and destroy all opposition organizations. cases. Not only this, but by waging an its democratic rights. Those who take this unorganized. effective defense campaign, these Gis have Such is not the situation today. Literally view must ask themselves how a movement What we have in the· U.S. today is a been able to turn the persecution by the hundreds of radical, black nationalist and that cannot accomplish even such limited major trend in the opposite direction. In­ Army to their own advantage by using union meetings, rallies and demonstrations aims is going to make a revolution. stead of war hysteria, we have for the it to help expose the undemocratic and racist What is really involved is a tremendously take place every week in this country. first time in history the development of Massive antiwar demonstrations are held nature of the forces aligned against them. exaggerated notion of the strength of the mass opposition to a war while it is ac­ The recent attack on the national con­ ruling class and an equally serious under­ throughout the country. tually going on. There is a mass nation­ Reaction? vention of the Republic of New Africa in estimation of the present strength and future alist radicalization of black people and Detroit is another significant example of potential of the movement. But, if we are not in a period of impend­ an unprecidented rebellion among young ing fascism, is it not a time of reaction how the mounting of a unified defense can The reality is that radicalism is at long people which is raising deep questions turn around and beat back a reactionary last on the rise in America. The counter­ similar to the repression after World War in the minds of hundreds of thousands I or comparable to the deeper McCarthy­ assault. The cops and politicians in Detroit attacks of the rulers are testimony to that. about the basic nature of this capitalist began to build up a backlash-type cam­ These assaults are deadly serious and must He reaction of the 1950's? Again, looking system. carefully at both these periods, one can paign after the shooting of a cop outside be combatted. But it should be understood Fifteen years ago, the witch-hunt was so the RNA convention March 29. One of that if properly and intelligently fought strong that even having a relative who their key targets was Judge Crockett, a not only can they be beaten back, but these Fascism: What It Is was deemed a "communist" could cost you black jurist who had insisted on giving attacks can actually be used to build and a teaching job or a job with the govern­ those black people arrested after the in­ advance the movement. ment. Now avowed revolutionaries are How to Fight It cident their rights under the law. But, the If the entire movement responds as one heads of departments in some universities. mass support which Crockett won in the to every attack; if it combats the poison­ Crude attempts black community and the demonstrations ous notion that you defend only those you The repressions that we see today repre­ and rallies mounted in defense of his ac­ agree with; if it stands unflinchingly by By Leon Trotsky sent the attempts of the ruling class to tion, forced the witchhunters to back down. its goals and at the same time fights ener­ beat back this radicalization. Clearly such Isolation getically for every single one of its rights, attacks are to be expected. They have al­ Behind every attempt at repression is it can only go forward. SO cents ways accompanied any movement for the hope on the part of the ruling class The movement in this country has indeed social change which begins to challenge that they can isolate the radicals and dis­ been through difficult days in the past. the system. This does not mean they are credit them in the eyes of the people. To But this is already a different time, here Merit Publishers not a serious matter. A failure to deal get away with this, they try to portray and throughout the world. It's a time for 873 Broadway, New York, N. V. 10003 effectively with these attacks today can pave the struggles against war and racism and revolutionary optimism and revolutionary the way for serious defeats in the future. other evils of the system as the "conspir- audacity. Page 6 THE MILITANT Friday, June 13, 1969

Why CCNY demand has politicians uptight

By Miguel Padilla In 1966 out of a day-session enrollment (A student at City College of New York, of over 10,000 students at CCNY, only the author has been active in the f~ght to 1.9 percent of these students were Black establish a dual admissions system at the and Puerto Rican. college.) Today the percentage of Black and Puerto The demand by the Black and Puerto Rican students at CCNY is approximately Rican Student Community ( BPRSC) that 9 percent. This increase is due largely to future City College entering classes reflect the expansion of the SEEK program which the racial composition of the city's high is, nevertheless, utterly inadequate, with on­ schools has touched off a storm among the ly 3,000 students participating in SEEK capitalist politicians and educators. The out of over 23,000 who filed applications. dual admissions proposal would mean re­ The small number of Black and Puerto cruiting approximately 50 percent of the Rican students who are receiving a higher entering class from so-called "ghetto" education is nothing but the logical outcome schools. The present rigged admissions sys­ of a system which is geared to condition tem, which discriminates against students us for unemployment or for the worstjobs. who are victimized by inadequate instruc­ The system that Lindsay is so proud of tion at substandard schools, would no has certainly not worked out too cool for longer be used as a barrier to higher edu­ Black and Puerto Rican people. Lindsay's cation for Black and Puerto Rican students. argument that the admissions policies of Attacking the dual admission proposal, the school remain based on the "merif' the politicians and educators falsely claim system, that is, taking in students who that such a procedure would amount to a have performed well in high school, is "quota" system. (They are apparently only nothing but an argument for the continued concerned about "quota" systems which exclusion of Black and Puerto Rican stu­ would bring people into the schools, not dents from the municipal colleges. about the very real, if hidden, quota sys­ At present 76 percent of all Black and tem which keeps people out.) Puerto Rican high-school students are Mayor John Lindsay was quoted in the forced out of school before graduation! May 28 New York Times as saying very Racism in education, teachers who have self-righteously, "I believe it is a quota sys­ no understanding and who are all too tem and I am opposed to it." often hostile to the backgrounds and needs Lindsay went on to say, "The college sys­ of Black and Puerto Rican students, inade­ Photo by Shelley Ramsdell/ New York Press Service tem has long in our city of New York been quate facilities and overcrowded schools, a superb outlet for higher education for are among the main factors which prevent BLAMED STUDENTS. The largest or a number or fires which broke out at students in our city who have been emi­ students in "ghetto" schools from "perform­ City College during the struggle. The fires made juicy headlines as evidence nently qualified for higher education. It ing well." of student "lawlessness" and "violence". Weeks later, a story buried on page is operated strictly on the basis of non­ The argument that the merit system, 41 of the June 5 New York Times reported that a campus security guard had quota. It's operated on the basis of merit. based on competition, provides all students been arrested and charged with setting six or the fires. It's operated on the basis of taking in stu­ with an equal opportunity to compete for dents who have performed well in high admission to CCNY is a piece of racist people as well as in the dual character of capitalist class with a reserve pool of la­ school and that's a system that has worked hypocrisy. Those who present it conve­ that oppression. bor which can be called into action during terribly well." niently fail to take into account the depriva­ The educational system surely is not periods of economic expansion and thrown The question is, for whom has this sys­ tions which this racist society has inflicted geared to meeting the interests of white out during periods of economic decline. At tem worked so terribly well? Of the upon Black and Puerto Rican people mak­ working-class students either. But there is present the overall percentage of Black ing it virtually impossible for most ofthem 1,200,000 students in the New York City a special national aspect to the oppressive workers who are unemployed is up to 6.9 to compete for admissions on truly equal school system, over 50 percent are Black a nature of the school system, which takes percent as compared to the 3.1 percent basis. and Puerto Rican. Yet only four percent the form of institutionalized racism and is figure for white workers. The percentage of are admitted into the municipal colleges. Another argument preaented against the manifested by the astronomical drop-out unemployed among Black and Puerto Ri­ dual admission proposal is that if students rate of Black and Puerto Rican students: can youth is approximately double the 6.9 were admitted without regard to their high The demand for proportional representa­ percent figure! school grades, the standards of CCNY tion in the entering classes addresses itself In addition Black and Puerto Rican Zero Mostel would suffer. to the national aspect of the oppression. youth provide cannon fodder for the Army This is nothing but an attempt to make The concept inherent in the dual admis­ to use in imperialist wars such as the war on plan the victim the criminal and the criminalthe sion proposal is that Black and Puerto in Vietnam. It is obvious that a college CCNY victim. Furthermore, it deliberately con­ Rican people are demanding something degree is not needed to fulfill the crassest fuses the question of educational back­ The New York Times asked sev­ more than the formal, and illusory, "equal­ needs of the capitalist class. The misrulers ground with inherent ability-two things ity" of capitalism. We are saying in effect of this country have assigned the vast eral well-known CCNY alumni that can be very much different. that the system must provide compensation majority of Black and Puerto Rican people what they thought or the agree­ For example, the SEEK students are ad­ for long-suffered deprivations. This is revo­ to help fulfill these very functions. Lindsay ment on dual admissions. Most mitted to college without regard to their lutionary in its implications. says "... that's a system that has worked expressed the racist attitude that high school grades. Yet despite this, and To the formal bourgeois notion of equal­ terribly well." The Black and Puerto Rican despite the handicaps of coming from in­ ity it counterposes a real and meaningful, student community is answering "The jig their alma mater would be ruined, ferior schools as well as the handicap of but actor Zero Mostel, class or'35, revolutionary concept of equality. At the is up." having to make their way in an institution same time, the completely progressive char­ had this to say: "I've always liked of higher learning that reeks of racism, the acter of such a demand is that it will not the idea or a free university for the overwhelming majority of the SEEK stu­ only benefit minority peoples like Blacks YSA demands poor. What do grades mean any­ dents have gone on to earn their bacca­ and Puerto Ricans but will also prove of way? Who knows who the scholar laureate degrees. great benefit to poor whites as well. What will be? Albert Einstein never made About the charge that opening the doors the demand does is extend into the colleges for so many Blacks and Puerto Ricans the principle fought for and won by work­ UC keep records it with good grades, did he? would deprive deserving whites of a free •• City College is a free school ing people of a free elementary and high education: I would saythatmaybeifthere's school education for all, not just those who and it should be open for all the a shortage of schools for middle-class white pass "merif' tests. from Senators poor. Maybe this plan will infuse students, maybe the city might get around These are some of the reasons why the something new. Who knows? to building some of the schools that are so capitalist politicians and educators so bit­ BERKELEY- Following a move by the Grades are an old-fashioned busi­ badly needed. terly oppose the demand. They want the Senate Permanent Investigations Subcom­ For revolutionaries a question that arises system of higher education to be used as mittee to subpoena the confidential records ness, and what the hell does a is why the ruling class should get so up­ grade mean now? The important they see fit to train those they decide they of the University of California and other tight over this particular demand. The need to carry out the various tasks re­ universities, the Berkeley Young Socialist questions are can a student learn answer lies in an understanding of the role quired by their system. Alliance issued a statement June 1 calling something, is he bright, can he be played by the educational system in the And the task they have assigned for the on the University of California to with­ a good rebel too? oppression of Black and Puerto Rican Black and Puerto Rican people doesn't hold its records from the Senate committee ''I'm for this plan, absolutely. require a higher education. In fact such an and repudiate this witchhunt tactic. If they have good teachers it will Fayetteville SDSers education on a mass scale would be a The San Francisco Chronicle revealed not affect the quality of education serious threat to this task. May 29 that subpoenas have already been one bit. The poor Puerto Rican The colleges and universities in this coun­ issued to Stanford, the University of Calif­ hit by police raid try provide the capitalist class with scien­ ornia at Berkeley, Harvard, CCNY, Co­ or black student is just as suscept­ tists, technicians, administrators, etc., who lumbia and Cornell and announced May ible to a good education as a kid FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. -Ina3:30a.m. are able to conduct the day to day function­ 30 that the records of at least 10 other with a 95 percent average from dragnet, 16 persons, including seven mem­ ing of the society. Very few Black and Puer­ schools will be subpoenaed. high school. That grade business bers of the two-week-old Fayetteville SDS to Rican people, however, perform these The subpeonas demand "records relating is malarky. chapter, were arrested in simultaneous so­ functions in capitalist society. The over­ to the seizure of ... buildings" and 'n­ called narcotics raids and charged with formation about such organizations as is whelming majority of Black and Puerto .. The tragedy here that miser­ possession of marijuana. Rican People belong to the working class SDS and black and Puerto Rican student able politicians are involved in The arrested SDS members include and are among the most exploited sectors groups. taking swats at the school. It's be­ Robert Speck, Stroud Kelley, Joyce Goree, of that class. In demanding that the Berkeley admi­ come a game of the politicians. John House, Jill Packard, Tom Agan and Black and Puerto Rican workers take up nistration withhold such records from the Why the hell don't they give 0. L. Scott, an antiwar sailor. many of the lower-paid jobs in basic in­ committee, the Berkeley YSA statement more money to the school to let Assistant Chief of Police Wayne Stout dustry; 33 percent of the UAW member­ said in part: "Instead of investigating the more kids in? Why the hell don't boasted, 'We pretty well cleaned out that ship is Black; we make up an even larger gassings, beatings, arrests and murder by SDS group," revealing the political nature sector of the jobs in the service industry. the police in Berkeley during the last month, they have enough room for all of the arrests. These are indispensible components of the the Senate committee propoaed to investi­ the poor, bright kids? These idiot Funds for legal defense may be sent labor force. At the same time Black and gate the victims of that violence. This is politicians don't know anything." to the Fayetteville Defense Committee, 14 Puerto Rican people comprise a significant a crude attempt to make the victim the N. Duncan Ave., Fayetteville, Ark. 72701. sector of the unemployed, who provide the perpetrator." Friday, June 13, 1969 THE MILITANT Page 7

Israeli regime seeks Something we're proud of to hold annexed land

By Joel Aber employment of Arab labor inside Israel's prewar frontiers, the extension of Israeli The Israeli rulers plan to keep virtually law to all areas," etc. Gen. Dayan told every inch of Arab land occupied during the Toronto Telegram that "these things the June 1967 war, and are quite brazen do not constitute annexation. But they about their intentions. On May 28 Israeli are essential if Israel is to undertake long­ Foreign Minister Abba Eban revealed that term rule of a million Arabs under an Israel does not intend to withdraw from occupation regime." Sharm el Sheik, at the southern tip of Palestinian Arabs living on the West the Sinai peninsula, regardless of the out­ Bank of the Jordan have resisted attempts come of proposed talks to "settle differ­ by Israeli authoriries to force them out ences" with Nasser. of their homes. Some of the crude meth­ Eban's statement may be of special in­ ods used to uproot the Palestinians are terest to apologists for Zionist expansion­ brought to light in a series by John K. in "self-defense" of course. At the time of Cooley in the Christian Science Monitor the June war it was said that Israel might (May 21-May 24). Cooley reveals that need to keep the West Bank of the Jordan the police systematically prevent both Jew­ River, and perhaps even a portion of ish and Arab lawyers from visiting or the Syrian Golan Heights, as buffer zones taking the cases of Arabs interned in against guerrilla attacks. But the Sinai Israeli prisons. He points out that Mrs. desert? That could be returned to Egypt Felicia Langer, a Jewish lawyer who has as soon as Nasser "learned his lesson." taken cases of Palestinians accused of re­ Now we learn that a road covering sistance activity, was once attacked by "a the 125-mile stretch from Elath to Sharm mob of Jewish settlers in the West Bank el Sheik is already under construction. town of Hebron, who jeered her in court Colonel Zvi, commander of the Israeli and threatened to lynch her." occupying forces at Sharm, says that the Often no charges are preferred against area has enormous tourist potentialities, Palestinian Arabs who are nevertheless and that plans are underway for a hotel deported to East Jordan and made to sign THE WINNERS. The Ft. Jackson 8 emerge from federal courthouse in there. pledges never to return to occupied ter­ Columbia, S. C. shortly before the Army dropped charges against them. A Meanwhile a former Florida real estate ritory or to discuss their cases abroad. developer is building a lavish ski resort Jerusalem mayor Teddy Kollek, Cooley few days before they were jailed, one of them, Jose Rudder, had written to in the Golan Heights of occupied Syria. reports, "has announced plans to settle The Militant about the activity of G Is United Against the War in Vietnam New York Times reporter James Feron about 30,000 Israelis" in expropriated and said: "One of the most beautiful things that has happened is the political wrote last April 28 that "although the lands. "Bulldozing and construction work maturity that has developed in our ranks. Men are beginning to see an enemy community is being built by private en­ on new apartment blocks is already under­ and an oppressor far beyond the lifers and the brass . . . It is your coverage terprise, it is receiving considerable assist­ way. Little by little, the Arab portion of of om. struggle here at Ft. Jackson and all the other articles that appear in ance from the government because it is Jerusalem is losing its most prominent a development project and is in a security and responsible citizens through deporta­ The Militant that has contributed to this political awakening." area." The resort settlement, piously dub­ tion, usually swift and without warning bed "Hill of Peace" by the occupiers, ap­ and always without appeal, by the Israeli parently has all the excitement of the Wild security forces. . . . From a purely practical point of view our publishing methods West of the American frontier days, with "Israeli newspapers have published the are as different from those of the capitalist press as are our ideo­ the colonizers "warding ofr Arabs instead names of nearly 1 00 of the deportees. logies. Nor does the difference simply lie in the fact that they're of Indians. They include poets, former deputies and in business to make money and we're not (or that they do make Over 100,000 Syrians have become ref­ Cabinet ministers, physicians, school prin­ ugees in the wake of the Israeli occupa­ cipals and teachers, journalists and money and we don't). tion of the Golan Heights and the city of women's leaders." The essential difference is that even though we are compelled Kuneitra, where Israel is already colo­ All Arab-owned businesses must register to function within the framework of a system that demands meeting nizing with Jewish settlers. under Israeli company law; many refuse your financial obligations if you are to publish regularly, we don't Moshe Dayan, Israeli defense minister, this compliance, which is regarded as col­ explained in an interview with the Toronto laborating with the occupying power. permit our financial situation to be the determining factor in what Telegram, May 3, "They want us to go Cooley says that "Israel obviously expects we do or don't do. If we regard something as politically important back to the old map and then let all the most Arab companies to sell ouf' to Is­ we do it, even if-as is usually the case- a dollars-and-cents refugees return to the small Israel of 1967. raeli owners rather than collaborate. yardstick would tell us we simply can't. That for us is suicide and we will never Meanwhile Arab resistance in occupied accept it.... First of all, we shall create Palestine and along the frontiers continues For example, last fall we expanded from an eight-page paper a new reality in those places from which to increase. Young people leave the refugee to 12 pages. Yet of the 40 issues we've published since that time, we shall not withdraw." camps to join the guerrilla forces. "So eight of them-including this one-have been 16-page issues. Part of the "new reality'' is ski resorts you see," Cooley quotes a university grad­ Next week's issue will also be 16 pages, making it nine out of as well as "extensive Israeli capital in­ uate, "we aren't refugees any more. We vestment, the establishment of the Israeli are people, with an ideal and a country 41. pound as the only legal currency, the to fight for." These enlarged issues have been published, as we indicated at the outset, not because we could afford them but because they were politically necessary. To be concrete, these were the principal features of the 16-page issues: Dec. 27: Mexican student uprising, San Francisco State College strike. Feb. 17: Special Young Socialist interview with South Viet- namese NLF representative in Havana. Feb. 28: 1.\:falcolm X memorial issue. March 21: The nationwide campus upsurge. April 4: The Army's move against the Ft. Jackson 8. May 30: The victory of the Ft. Jackson 8. June 6: The Berkeley police occupation. This week: Interview with Vietnam G I; contribution to the discussion of repressions. Next week: Text of a Socialist Workers Party resolution on a transitional program for the black liberation struggle. But having said that we did what was politically necessary rather than financially feasible is, of course, only one side of the picture. We would not be able to do it if we could not count on the financial support of our readers. It's still a hard fact that bill collectors are impressed only by cash, not revolutionary necessity.

' • • • y ' We hope that you will agree that our added expenditures were necessary and worthwhile and will want to contribute to easing Yes, l wont to help the financial strain they have necessarily caused- and to make it possible for us to continue publishing expanded issues as needed. In the past we were often compelled to appeal to our supporters to help us keep going in difficult times. Now we are able to ask for your help so that we may continue and expand our efforts NAME ...... in relation to the many inspiring struggles now taking place. Please contribute as generously as you are able. Send a check STREET . or money order to: The Militant, 873 Broadway, New York, N.Y. 10003. CITY ...... STATE ...... ZIP. With thanks and revolutionary greetings, The Staff Send to: The Militant, 873 Broadway, New York, N.Y. 10003 Page 8 THE MiliTANT Friday, June 13, 1969 Purple-heart Vietnam vet Why a com bat vete faced with court-martial By Fred Halstead of the area, found 13. I only saw three. Readers of the May 23 Life Magazine Of course we're told they carry their bodies story on GI dissent will recall a full.page away. But there was only a regiment up picture of Spec/4 Robert Mall of the 82nd there, which at the most would be six Airborne. While in North Carolina May or eleven hundred men. So if they had 25 I met Mall, who is active with Gls 475 killed, that means the remaining 200 TH£ United Against the War in Vietnam at Fort or so men carried away 470 bodies in Bragg, and obtained the following inter­ the middle of artillery barrage. I found view with him. that kind of hard to believe. • • • Q: Do they report American casualties accuratedly? lJI Q: When did you join the Army? A: I think you get a real good count A: July, 1966. of dead on the battlefied. But I'm sure Q: Why? they miss a lot who died of wounds, or A: That's a good question to which I accidental deaths. Probably the 35,000, don't have a very good answer. I was just or whatever it is right now, is a pretty ORGIINIZ£R a young chump out of high school and I close count. But as for enemy killed, the knew I'd have to go anyway sometime, body count is ridiculous. so I thought it was to my best interests One reason is that in counting, a weapon to volunteer and get it out of the way. I captured is counted as five bodies. In other A US TIN, Texas- The Army brass, its same time Bower helped inaugurate a new have now come to the different opinion words if you shoot a guy who's got a gun lesson still apparently unlearned from such GI paper, The GI Organizer. that it was not, because volunteering I you've shot six people. And it might be debacles as Ft. Jackson, is trying again. The brass, noting well the energy and ef­ had to take three years. more for crew-served weapons. It's absurd. At Ft. Hood, the brass has initiated fectiveness of Bower, then began a sys­ I came into the Army as an airborne Q: What did you think about this? court-martial proceedings against Pfc. Rob­ tematic campaign of harassment which volunteer. ert H. Bower, a GI antiwar activist. Bower, A: Well, the guys in Vietnam could give culminated in the Article 31 charge. Q: Why? a damn. They just want to finish their a veteran of the Vietnam war, replete with A: The $55 extra was the main reason. On April 26 MPs noticed handbills on time and get out. They know the reports two purple hearts, is charged under Ar­ I went to Vietnam right out of jumb school the floor of the back seat of a car Bower are ridiculous. The only news you get ticle 31 with three counts of distributing to the 173rd Airborned Brigade. Their had borrowed that night. The handbills over there is armed forces radio and Stars unauthorized literature. base camp was right out of Bien Hoa at were confiscated by the MPs and the hap­ and Stripes, neither of which are any­ Evidently the brass felt obliged to move the time. Later we moved north to Pleiku less sergeant who owned the car was hustled where near as good as even the press in on veteran Bower because of a recent and into Dakto. off to the station. Hearing of this Bower the States. Sometimes you get letters from article in Life magazine in which he was was able to exonerate the sergeant by ex­ Q: When did you get to Vietnam? pictured and quoted. Bower was informed home with clippings. But even those-you plaining that the leaflets, advertising a GI­ A: May 22, 1967. of the court-martial only a week after the get a clipping about something that you civilian beer bust in Austin, were his Q: Then what happened when you got May 23 issue of Life appeared. were in and you say: "Well I was there," (Bower's) personal property. The sergeant up north? and you know it's not true. Bower, 20, joined the Army in December, was released but the leaflets were held. A: We operated in Pleiku for about two 1966 a frrm supporter of the United States Q: What was your attitude at the time? On May 13 the MPs greeted Bower upon weeks and then moved out to Dakto on Toward the war and so on? policy in Vietnam. Arriving in Vietnam the 22nd of June on the same day Alpha his return from the field and hauled both A: Well at frrst I didn't know much about in May, 1967, he was assigned to an Company 2nd Battalion got wiped out. him and his car to the MP station where the war really, just what I read in the armored unit as a scout where he saw much They ran into a small element of NVA both were thoroughly searched. From his papers. At the time I figured it must be combat and was twice wounded. and they chased 'em, and they chased car a box of antiwar newspapers were con­ However, during his one-year stint in 'em right into the middle of an ambush. the right thing or else we wouldn't be fiscated along with some personal effects Vietnam Bower's position on U.S. involv­ Most of the company got wiped out. here. But after staying in the country, ment in the war changed. As Bower him­ from Bower himself. by the time I left Vietnam I was comple­ self said, "I saw myself and my outfit At this point Bower requested a hand Q: How many people in the company? tely against the war. I realized that the kill women and children and burn and loot receipt for his personal property. The re­ A: I'm not exactly sure. It wasn't my whole thing was a lie. villages. I also saw that the NLF really quest was arbitrarily refused by the MP company. Since the brigade's almost never Q: Where did you go after Dakto? had the support of the people in Vietnam." sergeant who then proceeded to curse the up to strength there were probably about A: I went on an operation that was a Upon his return to the States in May, young Vietnam veteran. Bower was held 100 people in the company, and I think pretty bad farce. It was a top-secret, super­ 1968 Bower was stationed at Ft. Benning at the MP station until 1:30 the following about 80 were killed. secret thing. They made us tear all our Georgia where he came into contact with morning. Q: You weren't there at the time? patches off our uniforms, paste up all the other antiwar Gis who helped build an Subsequently on May 28 Bower was A: I wasn't in the 2nd Battalion. I was emblems on the choppers and so on, en­ antiwar march in Atlanta. Bower helped read Article 31 and informed that the Army in Charlie Company, 4th Battalion. We closed us in a certain area so we couldn't organize GI participation in the march was going to begin court-martial proceed­ went up there right as it was happening, talk to any of the Vietnamese, and then which was held on Oct. 24. 1968. Soon ings against him for unauthorized distri­ and we were down in the valley watching we moved out on this huge heliborne thereafter, along with other Gis who op­ bution of literature. the side of the mountain being blasted operation. We made an assault on a land­ posed the war, Bower helped form the On May 30 Article 31 was again read to by artillery during the battle. Then the ing zone and nothing happened. But the Ft. Benning Liberation Front. The Army Bower and a copy of the formal charges next day we went up into the mountains 17th Cavalry coming up the road got moved quickly and transferred most of the was handed him. and policed up bodies and then moved ambushed. It was all supposed to be a organizers to other bases. In January, 1969 The Legal Defense Committee of the out on our own operation. complete secret. But the VC had found Bower found himself at Ft. Hood, Texas. Texas Coalition Against the War is mount­ Q: American bodies and North Vietnam­ out about it and laid the ambush. Her~ he began working with the GI ing a defense of Pfc. Bower. Any financial Army bodies? Q: Well how do the Vietnamese get this paper which was being published, The assistance should be sent to TCAW; 2200 A: Right. Mostly American bodies. We information? Fatigue Press. Additionally, Bower was Guaduloupe; Austin, Texas 78705. Peti­ didn't find too many Vietnamese bodies. A: Well, the Vietnamese people get it a major builder of the successful antiwar tions, telegrams, and letters in support of I think they reported a body count of from the Gis and they give it to the VC­ march in Austin on April 13 and spoke Bower should be directed to Lt. Gen. Powell; about 475 enemy. But the colonel from well, they don't have to give it to the VC, at the rally following the march. At the Commanding General; Ft. Hood, Texas. the 1st Cavalry made a reconnaissance they are the VC. The VC have vast major- BLACK LIBERATION NOTES How the CIA operates here and in Africa

In spite of the heinous frame-up of 21 tions professing to be advocates of black Negro Leadership Conference on Africa, situated in the United States. New York Panthers, with bail that totals power, is modeled on measures used by the ANLC, was created in 1962 by the Amer­ The article, entitled, "A plague on both in excess of $2 million, and given the CIA to disarm and co-opt the African ican Society for African Culture, AMSAC. your houses!," deals with the situation that press-inspired hysterical atmosphere sur­ nationalist movement that grew up in the AMSAC, as the article explains, was cre­ besets both the capitalists (owners of the rounding the case, the Harlem branch of late 1950s and early 1960s. ated and fmanced by the CIA for the pur­ plantation), and the trade union bureau­ the New York Black Panther Party has pose of subverting the African freedom crats (overseers in the pay of the owners). been able to put together a Free Break­ Thus, it was no accident when Tom struggle. ANLC, of which James was a In commenting on the disruptions in pro­ fast for Children program. The program Mboya, one of the top government officials founding member, was a subsidiary of duction, the article deals principally with: was initiated on May 19, the birthdate of in Kenya, told a Harlem audience recently AMSAC. United Black Brothers at Ford's Mahwah, that black people in this country should Brother Malcolm X, at the Friendship Anyway, in 1964 when Brother Mal­ N.J. plant; the Dodge Revolutionary Union Baptist Church, 144 W. 131 St. Contribu­ entertain no ideas about coming back Movement, DRUM, at Chrysler in Detroit; home, since Africa has no use for us. This colm X was touring the African continent, tions to the program can be sent to: Free enlightening all as to what the American and the Afro-American Employees at the Breakfast, P.O Box 1224, Brooklyn, N.Y. statement, which brought forth very vocal G.E. Hotpoint Electric plant in Chicago. condemnation from the audience, is con­ Dream meant for the black man, AMSAC 11202. decided to launch a counter-tour to neu­ To get a sense of how hot the frre is, sistent with Mboya's conduct ever since Business Week pointed out that "Marcellius * * * the latter half of the 1950s, when he began tralize Malcolm's "propaganda." Along with an AMSAC representative, it was de­ Ivory, a Negro member of UAW's execu­ Amongst the many enlightening articles operating as an agent for the CIA, thus tive board, has acknowledged 'a polariza­ in the June Ramparts, there is a devastat­ exemplifying that breed known as pigasus cided to take along someone from ANLC. And who do you think got the nudge? tion of extremist black and white positions' ing piece entitled, "The CIA as an Equal Africanus. In those days, Tom was head in the auto union. He said bluntly, 'I'm Opportunity Employer." The article, by of the Kenyan Federation of Labor; now Why of course, James Farmer. This Afri­ can tour was just one of the many ways scared of it. I don't know where the hell Dan Schechter, Michael Ansara, and David he is number-two man to Jomo Kenyatta. this will lead us."' Business Week'sconcern Kolodney, demonstrates the close relation­ in which James was unwittingly used by Tom's rise to power under the watchful was indicated when it said,"... whatwor­ ship between imperialist tactics in Africa the CIA. eye of U.S. imperialism is comparable to, ries businessmen so much is that even a and North America. The cases of James and Tom go to show but not the same as, his Afro-American small radical hard-core of activists can It reveals how moves by U.S. imperial­ that racism, colonialism, and imperialism make big trouble- as they have on just counterpart, James Farmer, former head are indivisible, one and the same. But to ism to cool out or pacify the black libera­ as far-fetched [!] issues in ghettos and on of the Congress of Racial Equality, CORE. get the whole picture, I suggest that you tion struggle at home are derived in part Farmer, whose history the Ramparts arti­ university campuses across the country." pick up the June edition of Ramparts. from the experience gained in cooling out cle takes up in detail, is now a member of And lastly, Business Week's sense of his­ or pacifying the struggle for independence the Nixon administration. James never * * * tory is brought out in its statement that, upon the African continent. consciously worked directly or indirectly In the May 24, 1969 edition of Business "For auto managements, the black mili­ In other words, Nixon's and the Ford for the CIA. But his shared belief in the Week magazine, consideration is given to tants bring back uneasy memories of sit­ Foundation's embracing of the reformist American Dream, whatever thatis, brought the fire- black fire- that is beginning to down strikes in plants staged by UAW and sometimes openly pro-capitalist ambi­ him into contact with several CIA-funded rage with uncontrollable fury throughout radicals in the 1930s." tions of certain individuals and organiza- organizations. One of them, the American the gigantic industrial plantation that is Derrick Morrison Friday, June 13, 1969 THE MiliTANT Page 9 ran changed his mind about the war

Spec/4 Robert Mall (left) Pvt. Joe Miles (center) and ex-Pvt. Andrew Pulley of Gls United Against the War in Vietnam.

ity support from the Vietnamese people, 4th Battalion. We walked into a ravine up to the dead VC and cut an ear, right actually the movement here at Bragg, the by far. that was about 75 feet straight up, rock on in front of half the company. Actually I Gls United, didn't start until April. That's Q: When did you become convinced of both sides, and in the bottom about a foot didn't see this myself because I was in my when I got involved. I think the first meet­ that? of water. The night before it took the barracks, but one of the guys that was ing was April 17. I wasn't at that meeting A: Well, as I went along I found it out. battalion from three in the afternoon to out there came in and said "Hey, McGuff but the next morning I found out about And I understood completely why they one o'clock in the morning to climb a hill just cut an ear." it, somebody told me about it and I imme­ would go over to the other side, if in fact with this very slick, red clay. We had to I immediately went to my platoon ser­ diately got involved. they were ever with us in the beginning. use ropes tied together to make it, and most geant and said I wanted McGuff put in I went to a meeting in the service club I became very sympathetic with the Viet­ of the weapons were dirty and couldn't jail for about 10 years. But all he was and there was some literature there some­ namese in that the United States had almost be fired. There probably weren't 10 M-16s given was maximum on an Article 15. body had just put on a table, antiwar destroyed their country. So just all the in the company that would fire. The next He'll probably have a hard time getting papers and so on, and I picked some up. Vietnamese around, doing the laundry, morning we got up and, at seven o'clock, promoted, though, with that on his record, I had some under my arm and walked bar girls, what have you, are sympathetic immediately moved out. Nobody had time and he's a West Point man. out of the service club and went over to with the VC. to clean their weapons. Down the ridge­ But I immediately terminated my air­ the snack truck for a coke when a bunch Q: And under those conditions it's almost line into this ravine. Theycouldhavewiped borne status -which you're supposed to of MP vehicles converged on the scene impossible to keep secrets? us out with stones, they wouldn't have had have a right to do anytime- and went simultaneously and it seemed like about A: Right. to have guns. Everybody was pretty scared, to a leg unit, the 25th Infantry. I spent 16 MPs jumped out and surrounded us, Q: OK. You were saying about the except for the battalion commander, who about a month after that in combat with dragged us off to the Provost Marshall's landing-zone assault. was in his chopper. the infantry and then I spent the rest of office and detained us for about two hours, A: Our information was that all the civil­ Q: Why did they put you in a position my time in the rear. I was on profile never told us what we were arrested for, ians had been cleared out of the entire like that and why didn't the guerrillas with an infection. confiscated our literature and called our valley and that it was 99 percent free-fire attack you? Q: So by this time had you made up commanding officers to come and pick us zone. In other words if they weren't stand­ A: Well the VC didn't attack us because your mind about the war? up. ing with their hands above their heads, they didn't know. Foroncetheyjustweren't A: By this time I realized the war was My CO then took me outside and told you were supposed to kill them. Well, we there. We were just lucky on that. Why they a complete farce. And in my opinion there me I was a sorry son-of-a-bitch for doing moved down into the valley and the first put us in a position like that, I have no was no way we could win the war. this and that no American should be caught day we were there we moved out over 300 idea. Q: Did you think it was still desirable with any literature like this. civilians. We killed a couple of dozen Q: Where were you in February, 1968, to win it if possible? Q: What did you say to your CO? before we realized that there were still a during the Tet Offensive? A: No. By that time I was completely A: I didn't say anything much. The next hell of a lot of civilians there. A: At Bien Hoa on long-range patrol. sympathetic with the Vietnamese. If I were day I went to the Inspector General and We moved down in the valley in a big In February, our intelligence sources said a Vietnamese I would definitely have been made a formal complaint. I called the IG heliborne assault and we'd been told that there was going to be an offensive in the fighting for the Viet Cong. later and they said we were arrested for our there were a lot of Charlie down here area and we were sent out about five miles Q: And what about the other Gis? own safety. It seems that some antiwar and no civilians and of course anything to watch a trail, which intelligence said A: Well, most of them felt more or less people from the Raleigh-Durham area had we saw that moved we fired at, because was heavily used. Fortunately this wasn't the same way I did, that the United States allegedly been beaten up by some 82nd we thought it would fire at us. But turned true. We found no traffic on the trail at could not win the war and that the United Airborne troopers. And they claimed they out they were civilians. We were chasing all. In fact, the grass was about three States was really messing over the Viet­ were protecting us from something like kids around all day. They were chasing feet high on it. So we just pulled off the namese people. that. Of course the service club we were the cows and we were chasing the kids, side of the trail and waited for anything Q: Did you ever hear about the antiwar meeting in is in the 12th support group trying to round them up and get them to come by. Nothing did. We were there movement? area, about five miles from the 82nd Air­ out of there. We did find a few VC there, watching that grass when we heard the A: We got some information about it. borne area and the only 82 troopers ever but very few. We got into a good fire fight mortars hitting Bien Hoa. That was the My brother sent me Ramparts every month seen there were guys going to these meet­ with Bravo Company though. start of the Tet Offensive. so I had a little bit better idea what was ings. Besides I'm in the 82nd Airborne. Q: What's Bravo Company? Q: Did you rush back into Bien Hoa? going on than a lot of people. We did Everybody in my company and a lot of A: Well that's another company in our A: No, we stayed out for a few days. hear about the peace movement on the guys in the battalion and in other battalions battalion. They were Bravo, for B Com­ I had no desire whatsoever to go back radio. Everybody was for them. Anybody know I'm involved in this. pany and we were Charlie, for C Com­ into Bien Hoa and get mortared when that wanted to bring us back home, we Q: Do they beat you up every day? pany. They were on one side of a village I could sit there and watch the grass were all for them. A: They support me. They're mostly and we were on the other side and some­ on the trail. Q: You mean you weren't gnashing your afraid to openly come out and join the body shot at something and the other Q: Is this a common attitude? teeth for the chance to get at those peace­ movement. People in my company are told guys shot back. Luckily nobody got killed. A: Definitely. The attitude of the Amer­ nicks and work them over? to stay away from me, not to talk to me, Q: Well when you got into an area like ican soldier in Vietnam is if you can stay A: Oh no. Most of the guys were waiting that if they do they'll get into trouble. that is anybody familiar with the area? Do the hell out of the way of the VC that's for the chance when they can come home They don't stay away from me, you know where you are going? exactly what you want to do. and let their hair grow and join them. but if a senior NCO or an officer comes A: Oh, we never knowwherewe'regoing. Q: Then what happened? Q: When did you get back to the States? up while they're talking to me they'll im­ Don't know where we are either. For in­ A: We finally went back into Bien Hoa. A: On May 18, 1968. mediately shut up and walk away until stance, in the mountains at Dakto proba­ This was just before I left the long-range­ Q: What was your rank? he's gone. I'd say 85 or 90 percent-al­ bly three times a day we'd have to call patrol unit. I requested transfer to a leg A: Spec/4. I never got busted. The only most 100 percent-support us in that they the battalion commander- who's got his unit. I had several reasons. I was getting trouble I had was one Article 15 for being think G Is ought to have civil liberties, own chopper and is always flying around. kind of short, close to my rotation date. four days AWOL in March of this year. and at least60percentsaythatweshouldn't We'd call him our "squad leader in the I was rather worried about my health. Q: When you got back to the States be in Vietnam. sky." We'd have to call him about three But the actual trigger for why I left long­ where did you go? Q: What do you think would happen time a day and then we'd pop smoke range-patrol was an incident that happen­ A: I got a 30-day leave and then went if they actually recognized your rights and he'd give us a fix. Now we were ed around Feb. 5 or 6. After I came to the 82nd Airborne at Ft. Bragg. That and stopped harassing you? always told that the battalion commander back. was June, 1968, and I've been there ever A: If we could leaflet openly and have couldn't read a map either and that his Team 17 had killed a couple of VC, since. meetings on base, we could get a large chopper pilot used to tell us where we and G2 [intelligence] asked to have one Q: When did you start exercising your number of people involved. I couldn't were. We did have a Spec./4 in my pla­ brought back so they could look at the rights to speak against the war? give you a figure now because we're not toon that usually knew where we were, body. Well the chopper came down and A: Before I got back to the States, while allowed to do it yet, but I'm sure we could but nobody listened to him. they dragged the dead VC off-he was I was in Vietnam, I was talking against get a majority involved in one way or As a rule all was confusion. Of course, about 16 years old- and a lot of people the war. Naturally when I got back every­ another. the VC, they knew because they live there, in the company started getting their came­ body at home and all the people I talked Q: A majority of the several thousand but we didn't. ras and gathering around. to were asking me what the situation is on base? We were lucky once, though. They had First Lieutenant McGuff, one of the pla­ like in Vietnam, and ever since I came A: Yes. A majority of the 56,000 at an excellent opportunity to wipe out the toon leaders in the company, then walked back I've been talking against it. But Ft. Bragg. Page 10 THE MlliT ANT Friday, June 13, 1969 Active-duty Gls lead protest •1n New York

By Joel Aber off base after 61 days in the stockade. NEW YORK- Led by active-duty Gis In unison the demonstrators gave the "V" and veterans, about 1,000 people marched sign to the two soldiers, who returned down Fifth Avenue in the withering heat clenched-fist salutes and broad grins to the ~ to a Memorial Day antiwar rally at Madi­ crowd. son Square. Air Force Sgt. Mike Harbart, Jose Rudder called the Ft. Jackson Eight a Vietnam vet now stationed at McGuire victory "a victory for the whole antiwar Air Force Base, expressed the sentiments movement." Responding to the Army's of the demonstrators in the opening words moves to give the Ft. Jackson Eight un­ of his address: desirable discharges, Rudder said,"As far "This Memorial Day has special meaning as we're concerned, it's the Army that GI's should be discharged as undesirable.... to me since I've seen the dehumanizing conditions in Vietnam. Unless we can mo­ The Army has the stockade, but we have bilize civilian support behind the antiwar the truth." Gis, we're not going to stop this war." Ex Pvt. Dalton James of Black Vietnam The march and rally were organized Veterans said, "My time in Vietnam has by the Veterans for Peace in Vietnam. taught me that every river is a Vietcong Ron Wolin, a coordinator of Vets for river; every hamlet is a Vietcong hamlet; Peace, chaired the rally. every city is a Vietcong city. The whole Photo by Alan Mercer The high point of the demonstration was damn country is Vietcong. They must know New York Demonstrators the really big ovation when Jose Rudder what they're fighting for, so let's get out and Joe Cole of the Ft. Jackson Eight and let them fight for it." were introduced; it was their first weekend Another Vietnam vet who spoke was Ex Sgt. Dennis Steel, formerly of the 10lst 3,000 in Madison march Airborne, now with the West Coast GI antiwar newspaper, Task Force. Steel said, Demonstration "American soldiers are radicalizing at a • • tremendous rate. Look at the radicaliza­ 1n protest aga1nst war tion-it's scaring the U.S. government and draws 1,000 the U. S. military to death. . . We get enough people in the streets and we'll end the war; MADISON-More than 3000 people be perfectly legal; but far less traffic dis­ these people who say we shouldn't stay in wearing black armbands marched in a ruption would take place if the city issued the streets and demonstrate, but should do massive Memorial Day antiwar parade the permit the CEWV had asked for. in Twin Cities something else instead, these people are around the Wisconsin capitol building. It That evening the CEWV picked up its was one of the largest antiwar marches permit. By Albion Urdank ever held in Madison. The city's petty harassment of antiwar MINNEAPOLIS-On Memorial Day The par a de was called by the Madison groups aroused so much press interest 1,000 persons from Minneapolis and St. Committee to End the War in Vietnam and that the CEWV's Memorial Day parade Paul demonstrated to bring all the Gis received wide support from faculty and was almost more widely publicized than home from Vietnam now, and to defend antiwar veterans' groups. the "official" observance. the civil liberties of Gis, in what was the The marchers were led by a muffled drum Madison's Mayor Dyke has recently in­ most successful antiwar demonstration or­ and a contingent of Vietnam veterans. dicated that he is new to the problems of ganized here to date, with the endorsement Veterans for Peace marched in the parade city government. The CEWV has given of the broadest antiwar coalition yet as­ and also in an earlier observance organized him a few lessons. sembled. by the generally prowar veterans' groups The demonstration, led by a contingent such as the American Legion and Veterans of veterans, consisted of a march from the of Foreign Wars. In both marches the University of Minnesota campus to Loring Vets for Peace group got large applause. Evanston holds Park for a picnic and rally, with a brief The parade was called after the Madison pause at the Federal Building for a wreath­ Veterans Council refused to allow the Com­ laying ceremony. The ceremony was ac­ mittee to End the War in Vietnam to have companied by a speech given by Gordon a contingent in the city's semi-official Me­ its first march Nelson, an antiwar Marine Vietnam vet­ morial Day services. Madison CEWV then eran. The featured speakers at the rally ran into further difficulties when it tried By Mario Vincolisi were Sidney Lens, from the Chicago Peace to obtain a permit for a separate march. EVANSTON, Ill.- The first antiwar Council and Howard Petrick from Na­ Police officials at first claimed they would march ever held in the North Chicago tional SMC. not issue two parade permits in one day. area drew 1,500 participants here May24. The demonstration was sponsored by the After the police chief had his mind They demonstrated as scheduled despite Minnesota Mobilization Committee and the changed on that issue, Wes Weinhold, chair­ denial of a march permit by Evanston University of Minnesota Student Mobiliza­ man of the CEWV, tried again for a per­ city officials. tion Committee to End the War in Vietnam mit for an antiwar march to be held on At a rally following the march the main and was endorsed by the following groups: The U of Minn. Student Association (Stu­ the same route and shortly after the Vet­ speaker was Eugenia Willett, mother of erans Council's parade. CEWV by this time dent Government); the U of Minn. Young a black GI killed in Vietnam by a white Men's and Women's Christian Associa­ had gained support from Vietnam Vet­ lifer, who spoke of the racist attacks on erans Against the War, Veterans for Peace tions; the New Democratic Coalition; the black G Is in Vietnam. The rally was chaired Mothers for Peace; the U of Minn. Students and F acuity for Peace. Chief Wilbur Emery, by Carl Finamore, a Young Socialist and Photo by Shelley Ramsdell/ New York Press Service for a Democratic Society; The Young So­ however, told the group they would have a leader of the Student Mobilization Com­ cialist Alliance; the Socialist Workers !'arty; Julie Miller to wait until 1:00 p.m. to hold their dem­ mittee. onstration, an hour and a half after the the Twin Cities Draft Information Center; In preparing for the demonstration, the Clergy and Laymen concerned about Viet­ just wrong. Stay in touch with the Student American Legion, VFW, et. al. parade was Student Mobilization Committee had leaf­ nam; Augsburg College Student Demo­ Mobilization Committee to End the War to end. He claimed that controlling traffic leted 13 high schools and five universities cratic League; the Honeywell Project; Wom­ and the Vets for Peace, and we'll be able would be too diffiCult if the antiwar group in the area. to mobilize people until the war ends." got the permit it wanted. en's International League for Peace and The Young Patriots Organization, which Freedom; and the Minnesota Committee to Julie Miller, a high school student active CEWV then made an appointment with is allied with the Young Lords Organiza­ Reorder our National Priorities. in the Student Mobilization Committee, Mayor William "Bull" Dyke. Dyke, whore­ tion and the Chicago Black Panther Party, The rally ended on an enthusiastic note. which helped organize the action, presented membered the Mifflin Street cop riot and the helped set the militant tone of the demon­ The vets who demonstrated announced they a telegram to be sent to "our brothers defense measures used against the police, stration. were going to form a veterans for peace and sisters at Berkeley" who were demon­ held a conference with CEWV leaders and strating this Memorial Day against the faculty members the day before the sched­ group. With 3,000 veterans at the Univer­ sity of Minnesota, they'll havealotofroom state of siege imposed on their city. She uled parade. to organize for the next antiwar action. announced the SMC's plans for Vietnam When the meeting proved fruitless, the NROTC protest Commencements at high schools and col­ CEWV notified the press that the march leges around New York. would take place anyway. Weinhold an­ Ft. Jackson victory Marty Morgenstern, president of the nounced that if necessary, they would at Northwestern Social Service Employees Union, spoke march on the sidewalk. Since no permit of the more than 2-1 vote for immediate is needed for sidewalk marches, it would By Mario Vincolisi celeb rated in S.F. withdrawal from Vietnam in an SSE U EVANSTON, 111.-To protest thesus­ referendum last year; he urged other unions Slate Philadelphia pension of four Northwestern University SAN FRANCISCO-A victory celebra­ to do the same and lashed out at George students for disrupting a Naval ROTC tion for the Fort Jackson 8 was held here Meany's perfidious role in supporting the drill, over 1,000 students confronted trust­ June 1. Diane Schulders, associate of war. "It is the task of the working class, Gl-civilian picnic ees, alumni and university officials attend­ Leonard Boudin, counsel for the eight in whose interests this war is not, to end ing a play on campus. The chancellor through the GI Civil Liberties Defense it," Morgenstern concluded. By Mimi Har ary agreed to lift the suspensions. Committee, spoke, as did attorney Edward Ruth Gage Colby of Women's Interna­ PHILADELPHIA - Antiwar sentim.:;nt Activists went ahead with plans to dis­ Keating, former publisher of Ramparts tional League for Peace and Freedom in Philadelphia will be taking the form of rupt the May 29 NROTC graduation exer­ magazine. said, "You can't make peace by bringing a GI-civi!ian antiwar picnic and teach-in cises. The university responded by moving Taped messages from Jose Rudder and the lies on which the war in being fought on Flag Day, Sat., .June 14, from 1 p.m. the graduation from the traditional open Joe Cole, two of the Fort Jackson 8, were to the peace table. I haven't heard any on, near Strawberry Mansion in Fair­ field to the fortress-like Dyche football played. peace plan that made sense, except from mount Park. stadium, which was sealed off with barbed Miss Schulders, in her speech, gave credit the Vietnamese, who say, 'Leave our coun­ This event was called by The Ultimate wire, greased picket fences and police. The for the victory to several factors: try.' That makes sense." Weapon, an antiwar GI newspaper at Ft. 200 student demonstrators stormed past the The GI defendants, who, she said, "knew Often antiwar activists have come to Dix and is co-sponsored by the Student barricades. When generals, admirals and what the fight was about and hung to­ demonstrations to make their presence felt, Mobilization Committee. Speakers include high-ranking officers approached the en­ gether ... They wouldn't testify against but have paid very little attention to the Robert Rosenblum, one of the lawyers trance where the demonstrators were each other." speeches. This rally was different. Almost for the Presidio 27, and Glenna Johnson, massed, they were greeted with the chant, The defense team (GI-CLDC) put the everyone listened with unusual attention, the National Executive Director of Women's "Let the brass fight the war!" Army under the light of publicity and was old and young alike; it was the consensus International League for Peace and Free­ When the university cops proved unable crucial to the morale of the defendants, that the speeches contained less nonsense dom. Featured will be one of the Ft. Jack­ to cope with the demonstrators, battle­ she said. and more truth than ever before. The speak­ son 8. Besides speakers, there will be food, equipped Evanston cops were called in and A reception for Miss Schulders followed ers were all serious about mobilizing to games and a rock band. arrested one person, a reporter. the meeting. bring the troops home now. Friday, June 13, 1969 THE MILITANT Page 11 Large antiwar action • IS held in Cleveland

By Syd Stapleton fense of antiwar Gis. In addition to Gordon and Pulley, other CLEVELAND- Declaring, "To hell with speakers were: Rev. Robert Bonthius, di­ patience, Mr. Nixon, bring the troops home rector of Clergy Internship Prog1·am, Case­ now!" Jerry Gordon, chairman of the Cleve­ Western Reserve University; Mrs. Marie land Area Peace Action Council, set the tone Tuck, mother of a Vietnam veteran who for one of Cleveland's largest antiwar dem­ now has another son in the Army; Hil­ onstrations. Called to "mourn the Gis who bert Perry, director of the Metropolitan have died in Vietnam and to bring the Affairs Commission of the Council live ones home now," the May 31 march of Churches; Sam Pollock, president of included a large contingent of young peo­ Local 427, Amalgamated Meatcutters and ple organized by the Student Mobilization Butcherworkmen of North America, AFL­ Committee; a section built by Cleveland CIO; Sherry Katz, a Young Socialist and area women's groups; and a contingent of antiwar leader at Cleveland Heights High trade unionists. School; Ryoshin N akayoshi, managing The six-mile march, which met with a uni­ directory of the Okinawa Prefecture Against versally friendly response from bystanders, A- and H-Bombs and chairman of the culminated in a rally in downtown Cleve­ Government Employees Union of Oki­ land that well represented the breadth of nawa; Shimpei Fujimaki, secretary of the national and international outrage with Foreign Policy Committee of the Japan the continuation of the war in Vietnam. Socialist Party; Dr. Sidney Peck, national Andrew Pulley of the Ft. Jackson Eight antiwar leader and professor of sociology described the struggle of the Ft. Jackson at Case-Western Reserve; and Bishop David G Is and emphasized the importance of de- Hill, minister, House of Israel. Cleveland antiwar demonstrators Unionist points to changes Demonstration in Dayton in labor on Vietnam war CLEVELAND-Speaking at the mass But in addition to concern with living rally called by the Cleveland Area Peace costs, he said "There has never been a was the very biggest yet Action Council May 31, Sam Pollock, year that voices in the unions, rank and president of Meat Cutters District Union file up to and including top leadership By Peter Graumann by applause when he proclaimed, "We 427, said: in a number of international unions ... need to keep on marching and organizing "I speak out today as a trade unionist, have not spoken out calling for cessation DAYTON, Ohio-Dayton, Ohio joined more and more people against the war, fully appreciative that this does not es­ of the fighting, calling for immediate nego­ the ranks of the revitalized antiwar move­ until every last soldier is brought home tablish my popularity with those who have tiations, calling for a stop to the bombings, ment on May 31, with the largest dem­ from Vietnam!" Ex-Pfc. Howard Petrick, felt, and understandably so, that labor calling for withdrawal and letting the Viet­ onstration ever held in this region. The who before and after the march gave ad­ has been found wanting on the issue of namese resolve their own differences and march, estimated at 500-700 people, was vice to local G I participants being harassed peace in Vietnam. determine their own forms of government." organized mainly by the Student Mobili­ at Wright-Paterson AFB for antiwar ac­ zation Committee, the GI-Civilian Coordi­ "I regret that I cannot speak officially Pollock quoted from an address to a Penn­ tivities, gave a history of Gls United at nating Committee, and the Dayton Peace for the trade union movement. What I sylvania central labor body given in May Ft. Jackson. express I honestly believe is the way by Clifton Caldwell, international vice pres­ Committee. The major slogans of the march Other rally speakers included Bill Chand­ millions of fellow workers in the unions ident of District 6 of the Amalgamated were "Bring the Troops Home Now" and ler, regional Grape Boycott Organizer, feel and needs to be said. One day, this Meatcutters and Butcherworkmen ofNorth "Free Speech for Gls!" There was also a who explained that grape growers are contingent from the national boycott move­ feeling for getting out of Vietnam and America: making up their boycott sales losses by ment against California table grapes. bringing the men home will overwhelm 'We who preach peace and teach war shipping their product to Vietnam-"440, the interventionists, and throw the full all in the same classroom-don't you Starting at Dayton's War Memorial Park, 000 pounds last year, 7 million pounds weight of the trade-union movement on the wonder why an 18-year-old gets mixed the demonstration went two miles through this year." Lawrence Nelson, independent side of ending the disastrous intervention up? We never objected to this warlike the downtown area to Cooper Park where black candidate for Mayor of Dayton, em­ and overhauling of affairs at home . . . " approach to peace, so our sons and daugh­ a rally was held. Featured speakers at the phasized that "the $1-1/2-billion spent each "It was not always this way in labor. ters do it for us. rally were Ginger Bunch, mother of month to colonialize the Vietnamese could A return to basic trade union policy in "'The Establishment stands for war and the murdered Presidio prisoner; Gordon produce a cancer cure or an end to poverty the international affairs arena is long over­ we don't want war,' 'Peace, peace,' they Fox, a member of the Young Socialist here." Two members of the audience also due ..." cry. Alliance and leader of the high school spoke briefly: a recently discharged GI Pollock briefly cited examples of anti­ "Can we fault them on this?Pearl Harbor antiwar strike in Detroit; and Howard who had spent seven months in the stock­ colonial and antiwar positions held by and World War II, Korea and now Viet­ Petrick, pioneer antiwar GI and a na­ ade, and the mother of a GI who urged labor in the past, then returned to the nam, and threats of other wars around tional staff member of the Student Mobi­ that mothers should "wake up" to the war contradictory situation in the trade unions the world. It appears that our generation lization Committee. The rally was chaired which is taking their sons. The rally ended today. hasn't been doing too good at the business by Celia Stodola, a well-known local anti­ with a telegram of solidarity being sent "Despite the ambivalent stance of the of making peace. Is it wrong when a new war activist and chairman of the Antioch to the Berkeley Peoples Park protesters, labor officialdom," he said, "there is a generation of Americans want to find a College SMC. and an ovation for SMC Chairman Celia welling up of strong undercurrents among new approach to solving the horrors of Mrs. Bunch solidified herself with the anti­ Stodola. the ranks of labor which can no longer man's inhumanity to man? Maybe they war movement and said: "If that means In addition to the previously mentioned be ignored ... It is currently related to aren't setting Communism as their big I'm some sort of kook or subversive, groups, the demonstration and rally were the rampant rise in living costs which is fear because their pipeline of information I'm glad there are so many other 'kooks' also sponsored by the Ohio Resistance, destroying all sorts of wage gains and tells them the young in the Soviet Union here agreeing with me!" She received a Antioch Young Socialist Alliance, Spring­ reducing living standards most rapidly aren't happy either. huge ovation when she remarked, "They among pensioners generally and union "Right or wrong they are legion against field High SchoolStudentsAgainsttheWar, claim that shooting my son in the back retirees particularly." war. I say-don't suppress them, for we the GI newspaper USAF, Concerned High was justifiable homicide, but I have a know full well that if only those who make School Students of Dayton, Wright State wars were to fight them, all wars would different opinion- I think it was murder!" Students and Faculty Against the War, be quiet affairs." Gordon Fox, who came primarily to the Yellow Springs Peace and Freedom address the large number of area high Council, Antioch SDS and Radical Studies school students who had been involved in Institute, and Dayton Citizens for a Demo­ CA·•LfNfJAI Gl-civilian picnic building the march, was also irterrupted cratic Society. held in Riverside Antiwar airman arrested By Terry Hardy BOSTON LOS ANGELES- Between 150 and 200 BOSTON SOCIALIST SUMMER SCHOOL. Speaker: people turned out May 24 at Fairmount Did. Robens, THE ECONOMICS OF IMPERIALISM: Park in Riverside for the GI-civilian anti­ for giving out leaflets three classes. June 13, 8 p.m.; June 14, 2 and 8 p.m., war picnic which was sponsored by the 295 Huntington Ave., rm. 307. Student Mobilization Committee to End the By Alan Wald is a Strategic Air Command Center and • War.in Vietnam and the Gls and Vietnam FAIRBORN, Ohio-Airman 1/c Larry top security, has made communication LOS ANGELES Vets Against the War. A good majority Friedberg and Sgt. Rossaire Bisson were between civilian and G I activists difficult, SOCIALIST SUMMER SCHOOL begins Sun., June 15, of the people present were high school and arrested on May 28 by Air Force Police although meetings have been regularly 4 p.m. Classes on History and Principles of the So­ college students. A new dimension added to for distributing leaflets publicizing the May held in Yellow Springs and Dayton at cialist Worlters Pony; and: From the Russian Ia the this antiwar picnic was the fact that about 31 antiwar march in Dayton. Friedberg, least once a week for fue past several Cuban Revolution. For info. write: LA Socialist Summer 30 Gls were present. There were Gls from an 18-year-old medic, claims that when months. Initial organizing efforts culmi­ Schl., 1702 E. 4th St., LA 90033, or call 269-4953. Pendleton, March, Norton, El Toro and as arrested, "We were called communists, and nated in a highly successful "GI-Civilian far away as Ft. Irwin in the Bay Area. one chief master-sergeant threatened to Conference Against the War" held at Wright SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA PEACE AOION CON­ The speakers were Airman David Mays kick the shit out of me." He quoted the State University on March 1. Out of the from Norton Air Force Base, Airman 1/c conference grew the "GI-Civilian Coordi­ FERENCE, June 13-14, to discuss summer antiwar hospital squadron commander, Chief Floyd Hof from March Air Force Base, nating Committee," which worked closely actions. Guest speakers to include: ex-Pvt. Andrew Warrant Officer R. 0. Shoemaker, as say­ Ron Motanak, a law student from UCLA, with the Yellow Springs Student Mobili­ Pulley of Ft. Jackson Gls United. For further info. on ing: "If you want to be a martyr, we'll Henry Ramirez from the University of do it for you." So far charges have not zation Committee in building' the May 31 lime and place: Peace Action Council, 462-8188. California-Riverside United Mexican­ been officially filed, but the two Gls have Dayton antiwar march of over 500 people. • American Students and Father Blaise Bon­ been ordered to report to the barracks Wright-Patterson Gls have already ma­ NEW YORK pane, the Maryknoll priest who was kicked area in their Class A uniforms on June 2. naged to put out several issues of USAF No forum June 13. Next forum: THE FALL OF DE out of Latin America and excommunicated Friedberg and Bisson plan to obtain a (United Servicemen's Actions for Free­ GAULLE, THE RISE OF POMPIDOU AND THE FOR­ from the church because of his work with civilian attorney with the help of local dom), an antiwar newspaper circulated MATION OF THE COMMUNIST LEAGUE. Speaker: the guerrillas in Guatemala. Also heard representatives of the GI Civil Liberties on base. They are also developing a GI Caroline Lund, YSA Notional Committee, just re­ were vibrations from the "Bones," a local Defense Committee. coffee house in Dayton. Previous to the turned from France. Fri., June 20, 8:30 p.m., 873 rock group. Since January antiwar activity at Wright­ arrest of Bisson and Friedberg, there had B'way (nr. 18th St) Contrib. Sl, h.s studenh SOc. Workshops on GI and student antiwar Patterson Air Force Base has been steadily been only a few minor incidents of harass­ Ausp. Militant Labor Forum. organizing were held. increasing. The nature of the base, which ment. Page 12 THE MiliTANT Friday, June 13, 1969

An unvarnished history (VI)

PL's sorry record on the Vietnam war

By Mary-Alice Waters Leninist concept of the united front. Progressive Labor's record on the war in This article will deal with several ex­ Vietnam constitutes one of the most shame­ amples from the "pro-Vietnamese revolu­ ful chapters in its entire history. tion" period, and a subsequent article will For several years the struggle of the Viet­ take up the later period. namese people against the imperialist ag­ The united front gression of the United States government The united front was a tactic developed has been a focal point of the world revolu­ by the Communist International and codi­ tion- an acid test for those who consi­ fied in a Comintern resolution in 1922. der themselves revolutionaries the world It had a two-fold purpose: 1 )to demonstrate over. If anything, this has been even more the willingness of the Bolsheviks to co­ true here in the U.S., precisely because it ordinate action, within certain limits and is the homeland of the aggressor. on specific issues, with reformist and other The political positions, and more im­ working-class organizations, which to a portantly the actions, taken by various greater or lesser degree were compelled left-wing tendencies have had historic im­ by the masses they led to oppose aspects portance. A political tendency that has of the policies of the ruling class; 2) to failed to come to the total and uncondi­ unite the broadest possible numbers in tional defense of the Vietnamese people, action around specific issues of key im­ that has failed to build the largest possible portance in order to create the most power­ and most effective, principled opposition ful force. The purpose was to win over in to the war within the United States, has action those who were not yet convinced APRIL 27, 1968. This was the movement of hundreds of thousands that dumped lost the right to consider itself revolution­ that their leaders did not act in their best Johnson and provided immeasurable help to the Vietnamese revolution. PL ary. In the early days of the Communist interests. turned away from it. International under Lenin, any such party As with other Leninist policies, the con­ would have been barred from member­ cept of the united front, and its utilization that no political tendency was strong The PLers proposed that the committee ship. as a weapon of struggle against both the enough to gain hegemony. Thus, while run Leslie Silberman, who was one of The Progressive Labor Party's position ruling class and the reformists was totally M2M participated in some of the early anti­ the leaders of the Queens committee, for on Vietnam, like its position on Cuba, distorted by Stalinism. This reached its war actions they found themselves outside office in the 7th Congressional District in can be divided into two distinct periods­ most tragic proportions in Germany when the basic organizations of the antiwar Queens, on an amorphous Independent pro-North Vietnam and NLF, and anti­ the Communist Party refused to build a movement, the campus committees. They Party ticket. YSAers and many others in North Vietnam and NLF. But again, as united front with the Socialist Party to were even less able to influence the direction the committee opposed the project. The with Cuba, their "pro" period was charac­ defeat fascism. In the guise of being"super­ of the antiwar movement than if they had committee was made up of very diverse terized not by an orientation toward build­ revolutionary," the CP characterized the So­ not attempted in a sectarian way to cap­ forces politically, and all members of the ing the broadest possible defense of the cial Democracy as "social fascism," and ture it in its infancy. committee agreed on only one point: with­ Vietnamese revolution, but an orientation abandoned the only policy which could M2M also had other false policies. For drawal of troops from Vietnam. toward making factional gains for PL. have united the majority of the German example, they refused to build antiwar ac­ But in order to run a candidate, the com­ And their "anti" period was determined working class behind the Communist Party tions which did not from the very begin­ mittee would have to work out a full polit­ not by a basic change in the Vietnamese and paved the way for a victorious revolu­ ning have the line of withdrawal of ical program, and it was precluded that revolution, but by the needs of the Peking tion. troops -even if they could participate in all members, or even a majority, of the bureaucracy in its factional battle with It is essentially this same ultraleft Sta­ them with a withdrawal line. They re­ committee could agree on any common Moscow. In both cases their most funda­ linist policy toward the united front that fused to build the broad antiwar coalitions program. The end result could only be mental error was their flat rejection of the PL applies today and invokes to justify that developed in virtually every city. to split the committee and destroy it as its refusal to work together with other The contrary course was followed by the an effective force for mobilizing people forces who are willing to struggle against Socialist Workers Party, which went into against the war in Vietnam. Phila. students: the Vietnam war. Declaring they will form the antiwar committees and participated The prediction could not have been more united fronts only with revolutionaries, they in the broad coalitions, fighting for these accurate. For weeks the committee argued fail to grasp the fact that the united front organizations to adopt the line of with­ over the political platform, and the mem­ 'It's Malcolm X, tactic would be unnecessary to begin with drawal. If the SWP had followed the same bership dwindled further with each dis­ were there not significant forces under the line as PL, it would have meant abandon­ cussion. In the end, all that was left of political influence of the reformists (or ing the overwhelming majority of the anti­ the Queens committee was a small cam­ not Franklin High' "revisionists" as PL refers to them). war movement to the reformist, pro-nego­ paign committee for Leslie Silberman who May 2 Movement tiations forces, rather than winning vir­ was running on a program ofradicalcapi­ By Jon Rothschild In March 1964, a number of socialist tually the entire antiwar movement to the talist reform. PL had succeeded in captur­ PHILADELPHIA-About seven weeks tendencies, including the Socialist Workers withdrawal position. ing the Queens Committee, but ended up ago 1,000 students at the 99-percent-black Party, the Communist Party, and Progres­ On the question of the Army, M2M adopt­ capturing little more than itself. "Benjamin Franklin High School'' here sive Labor participated in an east coast ed a position favoring individual draft The episode also casts light on PL's un­ voted to change the name of their school conference, sponsored by the Yale Socialist refusal. They circulated a rather startling principled approach to electoral politics. The to Malcolm X High School. The principal Union. Out of that conference came plans petition that stated, "We the undersigned PL "communists," who are so disdainful was suspicious about the validity of a pub­ for demonstrations in several places are young Americans of draft age. We of the reformism of the American Commun­ lic vote, so a secret-ballot election was held. around the country on May 2, calling for understand our obligations (!) to defend ist Party, received their political training The name Malcolm won by well over a the withdrawal of troops from Vietnam. our country (!!) and to serve in the armed in the same school of Stalinism. The CP 2-1 margin. A May 2 Committee was established, with forces (! !! ) but we object to being asked considers it a tactical question whether or Inside the school, the name has been Russell Stetler from Haverford College to support the war in South Vietnam." not "communists" cross class lines in elec­ changed. Students, faculty and administra­ as chairman, and Peter Camejo (YSA) Such a position turned M2M into a most tions. For more than three decades the tors refer to the school as Malcolm X and Levi Laub (PL) as coordinators. curious animal- a supposedly anti-imperi­ CP has supported Democratic Party candi­ High. Last week the students, with the sup­ Over 800 people participated in the New alist organization which proclaimed the dates and liberal capitalist third party port of the principal, petitioned the city York demonstration, several hundred in obligation of American men to defend the candidates. PL, which did not break with school board for an official name change. San Francisco, and there were demonstra­ imperialist homeland, Who they were to the CP until one decade ago, also con­ Said Ronald White, president of the stu­ tions in a number of other cities as well. defend "our" country against was never siders it a tactical question. In addition dent association, "We here in the commun­ Such numbers may sound small today, mentioned. to supporting campaigns like Leslie Sil­ ity and the school don't feel that we have but at the time they represented a signi­ As the mass antiwar movement became berman's, and the Peace and Freedom to stand here and wait for you to dictate ficant and encouraging first step toward larger and larger, PL decided that M2M Party, PL has also indicated that even sup­ to us what the name of our school should a mass antiwar movement. had obviously failed. In February 1966, port to some campaigns inside the Dem­ be. We decided to change the name of our After the May 2 demonstration in New the east coast chapters of M2M held a con­ ocratic Party-such as one run by Robert school to Malcolm X." York, however, the PLers in the committee ference and decided to dissolve. The Free Scheer in Oakland in 1966-ispermissible. The school board president then asked held a closed meeting which excluded other Student, the M2M paper, announced that While they opposed the Scheer campaign White why he came to the hearing, and he tendencies, particularly the YSA, and de­ this was ratified by other regional meet­ at the time, in a later self-criticism, one of replied, "Because we need an official change; cided to continue the organization on a ings. M2M had decided to "build the exist­ the PL leaders, Jeff Gordon, stated that we've already changed it spiritually. You permanent basis as the May 2 Movement. ing radical organizations" and "throw all PL's boycott of the Scheer campaign had see, in essence that's what we're dealing While excluding other tendencies from par­ [its] energies into their development as the given undue weight to the "moderate and with -spirit. We don't want to get into ticipating, they still continued to use the radical 'student movement' in America." revisionist forces who do not want to see a physical thing like tearing Franklin's original sponsorship list of the May 2 (No.7, Free Student.) a radical movement built in Oakland and name down." demonstration, falsely claiming everyone The Silberman campaign Berkeley." He stated that radicals must Responding to the fact that research by supported the new May 2 Movement. Anyone who hoped that this meant PL participate in the struggle to transform or­ a Malcolm X teacher had shown that Ben­ From there PL went on to a really fatal had decided to participate in building ganizations like Scheer's into independent jamin Franklin was a slave trader, Henry error, one which led to the early death broad united-front antiwar organizations groups. (PL, Vol. 5, No. 5, Oct.-Nov. Nichols, Negro member of the school of the M2M. They mistakenly thought was soon to be sadly disappointed. Their 1966, "Elections, A Method of Struggle") board, said, "The man should be judged that the mass antiwar movement which new orientation was to join the antiwar PL's various attempts to impose its polit­ in total, not just for the bad things." He was gestating could be controlled by one committees that existed and open up fac­ ical program on the broad antiwar forces advised the students to go home, study political tendency. They hoped that by pro­ tional battles to convert those committees brought them little success, and did even hard and make a name for themselves in claiming M2M to be the anti-Vietnam-war into organizations with PL's political line less to help build the broadest possible de­ their school. organization, it would become so, and on a broad range of questions. fense of the Vietnamese revolution, to cre­ Despite the callous phoniness of the since PL excluded other tendencies from Perhaps the most striking example of ate a mass movement of opposition to the school board, the students have pressed M2M, the end result would be a mass this occurred in New York in the Queens war within the United States. ahead. The senior class presented the antiwar organization with PL's line. Committee to End the War in Vietnam Bad as their early policies may have school with a life-size bust of Malcolm X. The antiwar movement, of course, did during the summer of 1966. The Queens been, however, they almost look good by At a special assembly, Mrs. Betty Shab­ not develop according to the PL blue­ committee, based primarily on students at comparison to what happened later. bazz, the widow of Malcolm X, spoke at print, but according to a totally different Queens College, was one of the largest and (This serial history of the Progressive ceremonies dedicating the bust. Mrs. Shab­ logic determined by the political level of strongest antiwar committees in the New Labor Party is appearing on alternate bazz was given a five-minute-long stand­ the student movement in the U.S. at the York area, often drawing 5~70 people weeks. The next installment will be in the ing ovation. time, and also determined by the fact to the regular business meetings. issue dated June 27.) Friday, June 13, 1969 THE MILITANT Page 13

Free-Evans movement at Case Western Reserve

A defense effort offers some lessons

By Roger Rudenstein 23 Committee had attacked the Panthers, decided to sit in at Morse's office until the CLEVELAND, May 28-0n May 13, comparing their nationalism with Chiang president agreed to the frrst demand- that an all-white jury in Cleveland sentenced Kai-shek's. the university take a public stand for Ahmed Evans to the gas chamber for the Many students were overwhelmed by the Evans' freedom. When the professor and alleged murder of three cops on July 23 evidence of such political disputes among more than 100 students marched to the of last year. black militants and a long discussion took president's office, the university issued a Students at Case Western Reserve Uni­ place over whether or not students should temporary restraining order against Prof. versity in Cleveland began to react imme­ support the demonstration. YAWF, which Zilsel et al threatening anyone who dis­ diately, and the actions that have occurred is close to Mae Mallory, argued that the rupted the normal functioning of the uni­ over the last two weeks have involved a students' struggle was on the campus, not versity with contempt of court. Sheriff Krie­ significant number of students. Most im­ in the community at large. Therefore, the ger and six county cops came on the com­ portantly, the students' actions, and the students shouldn't supportthe Panther dem­ pus to serve the injunctions. university's reactions, have opened the onstration. However, the dispute between In a leaflet, the students stated, "This eyes of thousands of students to the uni­ the Panthers and the July 23 Committee injunction was petitioned for on Monday versity's complicity in the repression of the was the real reason for this formulation May 19, that is prior to the action of the black community. and this became abundantly clear in the movement, not in reaction to the action Many students have learned frrst-hand course of the discussion. The overwhelming taken. Morse has stated 'this university has how a so-called "liberal'' university admin­ majority voted to support the rally, but a not and will not invite anyone on campus istration attempts to manipulate the stu­ heavy downpour prevented it from taking for repressive purposes.' He has quite dent body and prevent any democratic place as scheduled. clearly and publicly lied to the university." discussion or decision-making. The second main debate among the radi­ Under threat of arrest, Prof. Zilsel and The student actions began the day after cal students concerned whether or not the the others left the building after the admin­ the sentencing when 75 students met and tactics being used were "militant enough." istration agreed to negotiate and to hold a drew up a list of demands to present to SDS, YAWF and some unaffiliatedMaoists university-wide meeting. university president Morse. The central de­ decided they weren't. This dispute took its This meeting revealed the administra­ mand was for the release of the "Masotti most concrete form when the administration tion's true colors. It was decided that Report," drafted by CWRUprofessor Lewis agreed to hold a university-wide meeting there would be speakers for and against H. Massotti, dealing with police violence in to discuss the issues. the demands but questions and discussion the Glenville incidents last summer for In a subcommittee meeting, YSAers pro­ were not to be allowed, and strict time which Evans has been tried and convicted. posed that a demonstration in support of limits were to be enforced. The movement According to Newsweek, the report, pre­ Evans be built out of the university-wide for Evans drew up a petition demanding Pared for the Eisenhower Commission on meeting. SDS leaders proposed that a "peo­ an open meeting and over 1,000 signa­ Violence, contains "a scalding indictment of ple's army'' be organized to go into the tures were gathered in one night. the police." university-wide meeting-squirting water Over 2,000 came to the meeting on Fri­ Morse's frrst reaction was to curtly re­ pistols. The former proposal was adopted day, May 23. The frrst speaker to take the ject all the demands, but 10 minutes after and the SDSers and YAWFers walked out floor after Morse proposed that discussion he rejected them, he sent a messenger to of the subcommittee meeting threatening to and questions be allowed. The next speaker the students who were discussing whatto do call a "militant action." reiterated the proposal and presented the next and told them that the Masotti re­ As it turned out the only thing they did petition. Finally one of the speakers man­ port would be released. was issue another SDS leaflet the next day aged to take a vote on the proposal, and Having won their frrst demand, the stu­ entitled "I ain't marching anymore," which the moderator cut off the microphone be­ dents carefully formulated their other de­ attempted to explain why they were drop­ for a nay vote could be taken. mands and decided to continue to press for ping out of the movement to defend Evans. Over half the audience then walked out. them. The other aspect of the fight was the com­ It was announced that the movement had They demanded: 1) that the university petition between the university administra­ an open microphone in front of the admin­ publicly support the immediate release of tion and the students supporting Evans to istration building and half an hour later Ahmed Evans and that it use its resources see who would win over the bulk of the un­ the university-wide meeting was deserted to secure that release; 2) that the univer­ committed students. except for some pro-Morse professor& who sity shall not permit the military, the N a­ After granting the demand that the Ma­ were left talking to themselves. tiona! Guard, or the Cleveland police to sotti report be released, President Morse Although fmals are now taking place come on campus for repressive purposes; tried to take the offensive by going to the and the school year is virtually over, the 3) that the Civil Violence Research Center students to discuss their demands, rather struggle to free Ahmed Evans will go on be abolished; and 4) that the university than waiting for them to come to him. The in the summer in the community as a adopt a policy against participation in any Ahmed Evans administration also decided not to have whole, and will be taken up again when form of research to be used for the repression students arrested when they frrst occupied school begins in the fall. The lessons the of the black movement or similar social The debate within themovementsupport­ Haydn Hall. However, the liberal facade students have learned this spring about the movements, and against all secret research ing Evans was over a rally called by the of the university began to crack rather ra­ nature of the university and its complicity not available for scrutiny by the commu­ Cleveland Black Panthers, but opposed by pidly, and students soon learned how thin in the repression of the black community nity. the July 23 Committee, a black defense it was. will mean that the struggle can begin on The students also occupied Haydn Hall group for Evans. Mae Mallory of the July Three people, including Professor Zilsel, a higher level next year. as an organizing center, and it was around the acceptance or rejection of these demands that campus debate and action centered during the following 10 days. • • There were essentially two different as­ pects to this debate. First was the debate Fight for m1ne un1on post develops within the loose coalition of students or­ ganizing the actions- including YSA, SDS, Youth Against War and Fascism, liberals and independents. The second was the de­ According to the May 27 issue of the self is the father of that dictatorship, the bate with the university officials and their Wall Street Journal, W. A. Boyle, president originator of the brutal methods under supporters. of the United Mine Workers, is off to which the UMW rank and file have been West Virginia, fence-mending and hand­ held captive for many years. And, in ad­ shaking with dissident miners. The union dition, Boyle was a protege of Lewis and Young Socialist, election, in which Boyle aspires to win his hand-picked candidate for the presi­ a second five-year term, is due in six dency. months. at his side. Both the candidate and his Nader has a way with himself. One must CP spokesman on Boyle is warning miners of the dangers lawyer stated that they may ask the Labor credit him with knowing a good publicity of a "divided house," and lashing out Department to supervise the forthcoming gimmick when he sees one. Recently he Penn State against his critics, especially Ralph Nader election. revealed that Boyle has his daughter, an panel and state representative Ken Hechler. He Among other things, Yablonski calls for attorney, on the union payroll for some­ STATE COLLEGE, Pa.-At a colloquy suggests that"communists" are inspiring the an increase in the 40-cents-per-ton royalty thing like $40,000 a year, and a brother sponsored by the Penn State University internal union unrest. the industry now pays into the welfare and heading up a paper union organization student government May 24-25, Mareen Meanwhile three other candidates have retirement fund, greater militancy in con­ in Montana at $32,000. He also came Jasinski of the Young Socialist Alliance declared their intentions to take Boyle's tract negotiations, for large outlays by the up with the following information which spoke on a panel titled, "Right and Left: cushy job away from him. The Journal industry for mine safety equipment, and must make coal miners who have been Magnetism at the Poles," along with Arnold says "Perennial dissident Steve "Cadillac" for state and local taxes in the Appalachian refused union pensions on one technicality Johnson of the Communist Party, and two Kochic isn't taken seriously by Boyle's coal fields to fmance sweeping reforms in or another see blood. A special union pen­ ultra-right speakers. men: .. but Elijah Wolford, a local union education and other government services. sion fund of over $1 million has been set Discussing the Kremlin invasion of official from Morgantown, W.Va., causes All candidates who have thus far declared up in a union-owned bank in Washington, Czechoslovakia, Arnold Johnson asserted more concern." themselves in the running face almost in­ D. C., with just four beneficiaries- Boyle that "you have to understand the totality Wolford is campaigning against the inter­ surmountable obstacles- the major one, and his heirs, Lewis and his heirs, and of the picture to understand the justified national union's bad mine safety record the union constitutional provision making two union vice-presidents and theirs! actions of the Soviet government, especially and its pension plan administration. it necessary that each candidate to an inter­ It is true that among the high echelon in Czechoslovakia." Meanwhile Joseph Yablonski, a union national post be nominated by 50 local of the union bureaucracy there is graft Mareen Jasinski scored the Soviet inter­ officer and international executive board unions. Neither of the two rank-and-filers and corruption, as Nader charges. But vention in Czechoslovakia as "completely member, announced his candidacy amid who want to run have either the time or ·one must question the motives of a man un-Leninist and unrelated to Lenin's con­ rather unusual surroundings-at a press the money to mount a campaign to obtain like Nader and look closely into his rea­ cept of democracy." She was able to draw conference arranged by Ralph Nader, the such support. sons. "Good Samaritans" who come along upon her recent visit to Cuba with a dele­ safety advocate who has become one of Yablonski, however, claims important with their expose campaigns are not usu­ gation of 13 other Young Socialists to ex­ Boyle's worst enemies. Yablonski was well support outside the union as well as "strong ally out to build the labor movement, but plain workers' control and how to prevent guarded by three young men in business rank and me endorsement." usually to promote tightened government the kind of bureaucratic degeneration which suits. Mr. Yablonski was deposed as the Part of that "outside supporr Yablonski controls over the unions. has occurred in the Soviet Union. union's District 5 president in Southwestern claims was represented at the news confer­ The top union bureaucracy must be A number of students expressed surprise Pennsylvania three years ago. He claims ence- Ralph Nader. Nader recently wrote cleaned out, replaced by honest officers that revolutionary socialism as espoused to have been pondering fighting for the John L. Lewis a letter asking Lewis to under the direct control and discipline of by the Young Socialist Alliance "sounded presidency ever since. He was, at one time, depose W. A. Boyle for his dictatorial meth­ the union memberships. so reasonable." Many in the audience one of Boyle's most loyal supporters. ods within the union. If Nader knows any­ But that housecleaning job Is one that bought books by Lenin and Trotsky and At the news conference, Yablonski had thing about the history of the United Mine the labor movement must do ltaeJf. other revolutionary literature. noted civil liberties attorney Joseph Rauh Workers at all, he knows that Lewis him- -Marvel Scholl Page 14 THE MILITANT F ridoy, June 13, 1969 10,000 at Paris windup rally for Alain Krivine

By Richard Wood PARIS, May 29- Ten thousand people attended a spirited international rally here in support of Alain Krivine, candidate of the Communist League in the French presidential elections, at the Palais des Sports last night. The Communist League is the French section of the Fourth Inter­ national. The large auditorium was decorated with huge red banners and portraits of Marx, Lenin, Trotsky, Che, Hugo Blanco, and the Black Panther symbol. Every Socialist Students Union ( SDS) Bensaid analyzed the meaning of the elec­ He dealt ironically with the reformist tion campaign waged by the League. He campaigns of the two social-democratic nected and complimentary character of was stopped at the border. Tariq Ali, Bri­ the struggles in the colonial countries, in tish antiwar leader and representative of said that the campaign had helped demon­ candidates and the CP candidate. strate to many workers that there is a "The Communist Party," Krivine said, the advanced capitalist countries and in the International Marxist Group (British the deformed workers states. section of the Fourth International), had force to the left of the CP which is chal­ "calls for higher living standards for work­ been in France for a few days. He spoke lenging the CP more and more. ers and for limiting the power of the mono­ Jane Garner of the British International with Krivine at a campaign meeting of For example, he said, at the Renault polies. A question for the CP: What kind Marxist Group read a message from the 5,000 people in Toulouse on May 27. factory in Billancourt the CP has been of state would implement such a program? IMG in lieu of the speech scheduled by However, when he took the plane back able to intimidate many workers, even Does the CP think it can just tell the mono­ Tariq Ali. Messages were also read from to Paris to attend the Palais des Sports making it difficult for them to read revo­ polists, 'Look how many votes we got­ the Brazilian Communist Workers Party; meeting, he was met at the airport by lutionary newspapers. But the Krivinecam­ you had better give up some of your pow­ the Belgian Young Socialist Guards; police and expelled from France. paign opened with a meeting in front of er'?" Concerning the CP slogan to "purify" GONG, a revolutionary organization in the factory, a CP stronghold, and in spite the police, Krivine pointed out that the Guadeloupe; the Socialist Workers Party of harassment by a CP goon squad, the whole apparatus of the capitalist state will and Young Socialist Alliance in the United meeting was heldandmanyworkersstayed have to be destroyed, not "purified," and States; and the Democratic and Popular to listen to the revolutionary candidate. replaced by the armed power of the Front for the Liberation of Palestine. ~ole "We established the precedent of being able workers. There was one incident during the meet­ Firel-tcii to hold meetings at the factories in spite of The press, he said, "reported that at our ing. A bomb exploded in a car in front of the CP," he said, " and we showed the CP campaign meetings there were people with the Palais des Sports. The bomb did dam­ .r.e Its and the workers that we are here and long hair, blue jeans and foreign accents. going to stay here." We say we'd rather have people with long age to cars in the vicinity, but no one was He also pointed to the many successful hair and blue jeans than old reactionaries, hurt. The well-organized defense guard, Irf the Jldt r rid meetings the League held in provincial OAS generals, cops, administrators and bu­ which kept order in the hall, also quickly p~si(ie:pti~ cities, some of which were larger than CP reaucrats!" took care of the fire which resulted from the Alain Kri¥i:n¢, the election meetings in the same cities. One He also blasted the CP's failure in the explosion. socialist ·•• candidate example was the meeting in Toulouse. campaign to solidarize with the Vietnamese The meeting ended with the singing of ca:plyote. . . RU.J:mirig on Alain Krivine directed his opening re- and the Palestinian struggles. "We salute "The International." foJ"Jl) of tp:e CQ,mmunisl 'Jj"r~n~!t s.~(ll\ ()f uie: F1J~i lllltional,\.·••.·l{dvln~.i.P()ll¢ti in ··the·••·~.rs~ ..•• •.unotJida.I.tally by the g .... ·. nt. 'l'l\~ yot~ al1lo1Jllfe~ t0 \l. percent·.•of· .•. •th¢ Rally hears Japan peace fighters total VQte cast. Geor,~ Pf,ijlp1(';\()u, the (}aQ.lli~t qlndidate ~4;~(J pe~ce~t ~f CLEVELAND- Two representatives of "We are struggling in Okinawa, which e Against the Vietnam war; against sta­ the !()lt:'>• ...... ·.. ·.... ·.. Ala\n 'Pohe.r~ c~n~ the Japan Congress Against A- and H­ was utilized for the purpose of pursuing tioning of B-52 bombers at Okinawa. sid~ea···•his ... str rtY~~· qlttl~ Bombs (Gensuikin) brought greetings to the war in Korea and now the war in Viet­ e Against visits of nuclear submarines to In secon·. fundamental right of a human being, to closer than ever." United States on behalf of the Japan Con­ of.cotnpariso~ be against war and for peace. We are also Mr. Nakayoshi said that the demands of gress Against A- and H-Bombs. The meet­ dent~al electloll, convinced that the struggle against war and the Okinaw ans are: ing, which is widely sponsored by New of all fiv~left~\V1rig for peace should be fought more energetic­ e For reversion of Okinawa to Japan. York antiwar groups will be at 8pmat the didates was orilyl'7$,4;45; ally than the struggle for raising our stan­ e For removal of American military Metropolitan Duane Church, 201 W. 13th dard of living. bases from Okinawa. St., Manhattan. Friday, June 13, 1969 THE MiliTANT Page 15

READINGS FOR REVOLUTIONARIES Lenin's view of ultraleftism

The bubble king- Dr. Aristide V. Grosse, the possibility that catnip may have hallu­ By Milton Alvin gerous mistake revolutionaries can make." the scientist who insists you can best dis­ cinogenic qualities like marijuana and ''LEFT WING" COMMUNISM: AN IN­ It would be difficult to find more accu­ perse rioters by immersing them in plastic LSD. FANTILE DISORDER by V.I. Lenin. rate words to apply to the ultra-leftism bubbles, was the subject of a feature piece In the years immediately following the of today. in the May 29 Wall Street Journal. The Intelligence Dep't- To assure it will re­ Russian revolution of 1917, the best so­ The result of Lenin's work on this ques­ man's "no nut," the papers assured, pointing cruit high types, the CIA offers "low pay cialist militants were attracted to the Com­ tion was to help the communists in many out he worked on the Manhattan Project and high motivation," the New York Times munist International organized under the countries acquire a better objective appre­ which developed the bomb. There is, how­ was advised. Also, the spooks get to play auspices of the Soviet leaders. However, ciation of their tasks. At the same time ever, an admitted flaw in the bubble project. with gadgets. Like a match-box-size device many well-meaning people in a number the incorrigible sectarians were isolated Like how do you get rid of them? Doc that vibrates noiselessly in the agent's of countries sought to repeat the experience and eventually left the movement. These Grosse says you can puncture them with pocket when they want him to phone the of Russia without taking into account the latter vegetated around for a longer or your finger, but after a fewjabsyourfinger office. It would be embarrassing, a"source" particular conditions in their own countries shorter period of time and eventually all of get so slippery it slips off the remaining explained about the silent shaker, "for a top and how they differed from those in Russia. them disappeared from the political scene. bubbles. He thinks a rake-like device on CIA official at church, or a party, if he In this way an ultra-left tendency devel­ a truck would do the trick. suddenly began beeping." But what if he's oped in the international movement and in the position that agents have occa­ among groups moving towards com­ Sane as they come- Perhaps as further sionally found themselves, that is, with munism but not yet organized in a Com­ Merit announces evidence that Dr. Grosse is "no nut," the their pants down? munist Party. WSJ reported that he "is trying to interest In our own time we have seen somewhat the government in a plan to surround Sounds reasonable-A study showed similar attempts to duplicate what the Cu­ pacified South Vietnamese hamlets with that the widely used powdered vegetable bans and Chinese have done, also without new publications bubble barricades, with hidden entrances oil substitutes for whipped and coffee cream taking into real consideration differences for friendly forces and villagers." have a higher level of cholesterol-including in conditions that exist from one country fats than the dairy cream they replace. to another. NEW YORK-Merit Publishers an­ One company, Reddi Whip, explained how­ In order to educate the ultra-leftists of nounces that a new book and three new Too close for comforts?- The Berkeley ever that their product reduced cholesterol his time, Lenin wrote this pamphlet directed pamphlets will be published in mid-June. Board of Education opened its doors to because it contains twice as much air as against "Left Wing" Communism, as it was The book is Writings of Leon Trotsky high school students who got tired of dod­ the cream that would be used in its place. then called. In it he deals concretely with (1939-40), paperback, 128 large-size ging buckshot and tear gas in the occupied questions of tactics and strategy for com­ pages, equivalent to the usual book of area of the city where their school is lo­ The difference- Proponents of the "lesser munists in a number of countries. Although more than 300 pages, $2.45. This volume, cated. Later a Board of Education spokes­ evil" thesis that there's enough difference American communism of that time is not which covers the last year of Trotsky's man said, "It's been quite an experience between the two capitalist parties to make specifically discussed, this pamphlet had a life, is the frrst in a series that will reprint for our people [the administrators] too. one of them worth supporting now have strong influence upon the then young Com­ everything by Trotsky translated into En­ Some of them have never been that close a weighty argument. The Johnson ad­ munist Party in this country and helped glish during his third exile ( 1939-40) that to children before." ministration had been considering a pro­ it to get rid of much of its ultra-leftist is not otherwise available in permanent posal to set a 30 percent limit on the fat and sectarian baggage. books and pamphlets. Merit plans to Knows his place-Gov. Reagan of Calif­ content of hot dogs (presently, the casing's Among the subjects Lenin treats, are: publish two of these volumes every year ornia told a student delegation: "I would be the limit). Now the Nixon team is recom­ the international significance of the Russian in the most inexpensive form possible. happy to meet on any campus with any mending that the proposed limit be upped revolution; the basic requisites of the success The present volume is divided into five group at any time. But at the moment to 33 percent. of the Bolsheviks; the history of Bolshe­ parts: World War II, Imperialism and you know and I know that I could preci­ vism; revolutionaries and trade unions; Stalinism; American Problems; For an pitate a riot simply by showing up." It figures-"Tax Official Raises $6,000 the Marxist attitude towards capitalist par­ Independent Soviet Ukraine; The Assassi­ for Lindsay."- Headline on page 1 of the liaments and the question of what con­ nation Attempt (of May 24, 1940), I;ast Seeks damages- A damage suit against May 29 New York Times. "Lindsay Points situtes permissible compromises. Articles and Letters. It begins with the God was flied by an Oakland, Calif., wo­ to Economic Gains." - Headline on page This pamphlet would make valuable announcement of the Stalin-Hitler Pact on man whose home was struck by light­ 48 of the same issue. reading for all members of SDS and parti­ Aug. 22, 1939, and ends with the article ning. Noting that He is responsible for cularly for members of Progressive Labor Trotsky was preparing on "Bonapartism, the maintenance and orderly operation of Denial of rights- The Board of Select­ Party. Both groups make the same errors Fascism and War" on the day he was the universe, the suit alleged that He, in a men of Middleton, Mass. voted regula­ in turning their backs upon electoral and struck down by an assassin sent by Stalin, "careless and negligent manner . . . tions requiring that policemen on duty not parliamentary activity that the "Left Wing" Aug. 20, 1940. caused lightning to strike the plaintiffs be grouchy, keep their feet off desk tops communists did almost half a century ago. The three pamphlets are: home," doing damage to her home and and stay out of houses of ill repute. The And, it may be added, they do so for the The Youth Movement and the Allenation nerves. Her attorney said he would seek chief of police was so shook up he im­ same sectarian reasons. of Society by Jose Revueltas, 36 pages, to collect damages by attaching an Arizona mediately went to court for a permanent Lenin develops a sharp polemic against 35 cents. Revueltas, an outstanding Mexi­ ranch that folksinger Lou Gottlieb recently injunction, charging the new rules are "ille­ the Dutch and German communists who can novelist, is now in a Mexican p'rison deeded to the deity because local authori­ gal, unconstitutional and unreasonable." turned their backs on parliamentary ac­ as the "inspirer" of the militant student ties were giving him a hard time about He says there are no sporting houses in tivity, and their assertion that such activity struggle which the Mexican government his alleged hippy friends. Middleton. The police station is in his is "obsolete." He says, "It is evident that put down in blood last year. It is his an­ house. the "Lefts" in Germany have mistaken theJr swer to the attack on the youth movement High as a kitten- Scientists are studying -Harry Ring desire, their ideological-political attitude, made by the pro-Moscow labor bureau­ for objective reality. This is the most dan- crat, Lombardo Toledano, shortly before the latter's death. Rebels and Bureaucrats: Soviet Conflicts As Seen In Solzhenitsyn's 'Cancer Ward' by George Saunders, 60 pages, 50 cents. In an analysis of the characters presented in Solzhenitsyn's brilliant novel, the author draws an absorbing picture of class rela­ ARIZONA: Phoenix: YSA, c/o lindley Garner, 1010 MI. Prospect Ave., Newark, N.J. 07104. Tel: (201) tions in the Soviet Union since Stalin's lemon St., •12, Tempe, Arizona 85281. 483-8513. death. CAUFORNIA: Berkeley-Oakland: SWP and YSA, NEW YORK: Albany: YSA, c/o Bill O'Kain, 313 State Burning Issues of the Mideast Crisis 2519-A Telegraph Avenue, Berkeley, Calif. 94704. St., Albany, N.Y. 12210. by Peter Buch, 32 pages, 40 cents. In this Tel: 141 5) 848-9334. Binghamton: YSA, c/o Peter Gellert, Box 13B9, Her­ fact-crammed study the author traces the los Angeles: SWP and YSA, 1702 E. 4th St., los pur College, Binghamton, N.Y. 13901. Tel: (607) 798- development of Zionism from its origins Angeles, Calif. 90033. Tel: 1213)269-4953. 3977. to its conflicts in 1969 with the Palestine Son Francisco: SWP, YSA, Militant labor Forum, and New York City: SWP and YSA and bookstore, 873 liberation movement. Along the way he Pioneer Books, 2338 Market St., San Francisco, Calif. Broadway, N.Y., N.Y. 10003. Tel: (212)982-6051. explodes many of the stock propaganda 94114. Tel: 1415) 626-9958. NORTH CAROLINA: Chapel Hill-Durham: YSA, P. 0. themes of the Zionists. San Diego: YSA, c/o Bill Williams, 897 Vista Grande, Box 10, Carrboro, N.C. 27510. For a new catalog of books and Apt. 4, El Cajon, Calif. 92020. OHIO: Cleveland: SWP and YSA, 9B01 Euclid Ave., pamphlets published or distributed by Merit GEORGIA: Atlanta: YSA and bookstore, 187 14th Cleveland, Ohio 44106. Tel: 1216)791-1669. Publishers, write 873 Broadway, New St., Atlanta, Ga. 30309. Tel: 1404) 876-3887. Kent: YSA, P.O. Box 116, Kent, Ohio 44240. Lenin in 1915 York, N.Y. 10003. ILUNOIS: Champaign-Urbana: YSA, P. 0. Box 2099, Yellow Springs: YSA, c/o Peter Graumann, Antioch Sta. A, Champaign, Ill. 61820. Tel: 1217) 359-1333. Union, Yellow Springs, Ohio 45387. Tel: (513) 767------clipandmail ------Chicago: SWP, YSA and bookstore, 302 S. Canal St., 5511. Rm. 204, Chicago, Ill. 60606. Tel: 1312)939-2667. OKLAHOMA: Norman: YSA, c/o Sudie Trippel, 412 DeKalb: YSA, c/o Marv Kotter, 810 Kimberly •100, West Eufaula, Norman, Oklahoma 73069. Tel: (405) DeKalb, Ill. 60115. 321-2594. Peoria: YSA, c/o Mike Ghelfi, 1522 N. Bradley, Peoria, OREGON: Portland: YSA, c/o Tonie Porter, 5203 S. New Ill. 61606. Special to Readers W. Pomona, Portland, Oregon, 97219. Tel: (503) 246- INDIANA: Bloomington: YSA, c/o Rick Congress, 207 9245. E. 2nd St., Bloomington, Ind. 47401. If you would like to get better acquainted with THE MILITANT, you PENNSYLVANIA: Philadelphia: SWP and YSA, 6B6 MAINE: Brunswick: YSA, c/o Ted Parsons, Senior Cen­ N. Broad St., Philadelphia, Penna. 19130. Tel: (215) may obtain a special, introductory three-month subscription for $]. (If ter, Bowdoin·College, Brunswick, Maine 04011. CE 6-699B. you're already sold on the paper, you can help out by sending a reg­ MASSACHUSETTS: Boston: SWP and YSA, c/o Militant RHODE ISLAND: Providence: YSA, c/o Jeff Powers, labor Forum, 295 Huntington Ave., Rm 307, Boston, ular one-year subscription for $4.) 134 Benefit St., Providence, R.I. 02902. Mass. 02115. Tel: 1617) 536-6981. MICHIGAN: Detroit: SWP and YSA, Eugene V. Debs TEXAS: Austin: YSA, c/o Charles Cairns, 1803 En­ D Enclosed is $1 for a 3 month introductory subscription. Hall, 3737 Woodward Ave., Detroit, Mich. 48201. Tel: Field Rd., Austin, Texas 7B703. Tel: (512) 476-0850. D Enclosed is $4 for a 1 year regular subscription. 1313) TEI-6135. Houston: YSA, c/o Fred Brode, 5420 Olano, Houston, D For Gls-$1 for a 6-month introductory subscription. East lansing: YSA, P. 0. Box 9251, East lansing, Texas 77039. Michigan 48909. UTAH: logan: YSA, c/o Sterne McMullen, 763 E. 9th Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor: YSA, c/o Ed Mattos, 913 North, logan, Utah 84321. Washtenaw •16, Ypsilanti, Mich. 48197. Tel: (313) 482- WASHINGTON, D. C.: YSA, c/o Kathy Coram, 3518 NAME ...... 7348. Wisconsin Ave. N:W. •3 Tel: 1202)362-0037. MINNESOTA: Minneapolis-St. Paul: SWP, YSA and WASHINGTON: Seattle: SWP and YSA, 5257 Uni­ STREET ...... •...... •..•. labor Bookstore, 704 Hennepin Ave., Rm. 240, Mpls. versity Way N.E., Seattle, Wash. 98105. Tel: (206) 55403. Tel: (612)332-7781. 523-2555. MISSOURI: St. louis: YSA, c/o Bill Onasch, Schardell WISCONSIN: Madison: YSA, 202 W. Gilman, Madi­ CITY ...... STATE ..•...•ZIP .... . Hotel, Rm. 30, 280 N. Skinker Blvd., St. louis, Mo. son, Wise. 53703. Tel: (608) 256-0857. 63130. Oshkosh: YSA, c/o Peter Kohlenberg, Gruenhagen NEW JERSEY: Newark: YSA, c/o Walt Bred, 425 Hall, WSU, Oshkosh, Wise. 5490 1. Send to: The Militant, 873 Broadway, New York, N.Y. 10003 Page 16 THE MILITANT Friday, June 13, 1969 Brass stumbles aga1n• • move to victimize Gl

JUNE 5- In a further attempt to vic­ duty. When he signed out for the weekend timize Pvt. Joe Miles for his antiwar ac­ his name was not on the weekend duty tivity in Gis United Against the War in roster. Vietnam at Ft. Bragg and Ft. Jackson, At a press conference in Washington the Army brass has tripped over itself yesterday, called before the news of the again. postponement of the Alaska assignment, Last week the brass at Ft. Bragg, N. C., Mrs. Agnes Lowe, Miles' mother, said decided they could rid themselves of Miles that she has written to Secretary of the by transferring him to a base in the Arctic Army Stanley Resor demanding protec­ region, several hundred miles north of tion of her son's constitutional rights and Fairbanks, Alaska. Now it appears that scoring the Alaska assignment as an Gen. Tolson, the Ft. Bragg commander, attempt to punish him for exercising those will be graced by Miles' company for a rights. "Could one man be such a threat while longer as a result of an attempt to the U.S. Army," Mrs. Lowe's letter to frame him on an AWOL charge. asked, "that he must be exiled rather than The brass outmaneuvered themselves on the U.S. Army standing up to his accusa­ June 3, when Miles received a notice of tions?" pending disciplinary action for allegedly "I do not wish to express any opinion being AWOL Memorial Day weekend. on the Vietnam war," Mrs. Lowe's appeal Miles' commanding officier, Capt. Schatz, said; "I cannot condemn or condone a who had told Miles he could leave the world situation about which I have not base for the weekend, now claims he had learned enough. . .. Nevertheless, I do said Miles could not leave for the weekend. feel that these young men who have to go Faced with a choice of accepting an uncon­ to battle, who for the past 20 years have tested minor punishment or being able known nothing but war and confusion, to plead not guilty at a court-martial, should have a right to question what Miles requested the court-martial. The re­ they are fighting for." sultant proceedings will take several weeks, Ruth Blackstock of the G I Civil Liberties thereby delaying the port call to Alaska, Defense Committee announced at the Wash­ which would come up while the court­ ington press conference that lawyers for martial is pending. Miles had filed against the Army a "show The brass will have a hard time making cause" order in the federal court for the the AWOL charge stick. Miles has what Eastern District of North Carolina at Fayet­ is known as a permanent-party pass which teville. At a preliminary hearing set for allows him to signout whenever he is off- June 9, the federal judge will begin hearing arguments to decide whether the Army must show cause why they should not be restrained from shipping Joe Miles to Nine indicted Alaska. A statement by Congressman Charles Photo by Ron Payne E. Goodell (Rep.- N.Y.) read at the press Mass action at Berkeley (story page 4) in frame-up at conference said in part: "The case of Pvt. Joseph D. Miles, who is being assigned to Alaska under other than 'regular pro­ U of Indiana cedures' again raises the issue of reassign­ ment by the Army as its reaction to mem­ For Army needless deaths bers of the military who actively express By Rick Congress their disagreement with military policy BLOOMINGTON, Ind.- Nine persons and procedure, particularly with regard at the University of Indiana, including to the war in Vietnam." Professor Orlando Taylor, have been in­ Among the "other than 'regular proce­ mainly a press problem dicted on charges of participating in the dures'" referred to in the Goodell state­ May 8 "lock-in" in Ballantine Hall on the ment are: the fact that the reassignment IU campus. Included in the indictment is a one-man levy while enlisted men are By Dick Roberts Vietnamese to throw in the towel. were SDS leader Joel Allen and black stu­ normally assigned in groups; the waiver, JUNE 6-Sixty Gis were killed, 25 were While this effort has not been very effec­ dent spokesman Rollo Turner. in Miles' case, of the Army's normal 18- missing, presumably dead and 308 wound­ tive from that standpoint, it has helped The incident occurred during the student month requirement for an Alaska levy, ed, in the May 10-May 20 U.S. attack on whet the military appetite for blood. strike against the increase in tuition, when so that he can be sent to Alaska although Apbia Mountain-"Hamburger Hill"­ "There are American and South Viet­ 120 black students took positions at the he has only 11 months left in his tour Senator Stephen Young disclosed May 29. namese commanders, who, like the statis­ doors of a student-faculty-administration of duty; and his assignment to a base Recalling the statement of one Pentagon ticians, put great stock in the 'body counts' negotiating session and announced that to which only lifers are normally sent. spokesman that "Hamburger Hill was stra­ and therefore urge their units to compete nobody would leave until the administra­ Miles' younger brother, Keith Miles, tegically important. It dominated the sup­ for 'kills,' Ayres reports. tion brought the trustees to the meeting to stated at the news conference that "there ply route from Laos to Ashau Valley," "'How many did you get?' is a question bargain in goad faith. No one was physic­ are many people in this country, both the Ohio Democrat asked why U.S. troops frequently heard over field radios. Some ally prevented from leaving, and an agree­ prominent and ordinary, who agree with were withdrawn from the mountain imme­ units keep elaborate kill charts. During ment was reached after a few hours and my brother in his views, and I am one diately after the battle. morning and evening briefings, they are the meeting ended. of them." Both Joe Miles' mother and his He revealed that 20 or 30 Gis have now displayed with considerable pride." The IU trustees, town Birchers and local brother stressed that he had never dis­ been sent back to Apbia Mountain, "im­ But remember, it's a war to save our right-wing press clamored for legal action obeyed an order or violated any Army mediately following" Senator Kennedy's civilized way of life. against the blacks. The result was the regulation, but that the attempted victim­ criticism of the battle. There were 10,000 grand-jury investigation and indictments ization stems solely from his exercising troops of the 1 01st Airborne Division in­ which were handed down today. his right of free speech. volved in the initial attack. Taylor and Allen are charged with "rout," The concern of those running the war, while Turner and six other black students however, is not that young men were .~>~~~: are charged with "rout" and "riotous con­ cruelly sacrificed but only about the im­ ~~··•·wo>r.t·ti spiracy." "Rout" (riot) is a misdemeanor pact of the revelations on the American carrying a maximum fine of $100 and 60 people. Young cited a "high State Depart­ days in jail; "riotous conspiracy" carries a ment official": 2- to 10-year sentence and a $2,000 max­ "With the Paris talks going on, we don't imum fine. Both laws were put on the need gory stories in the papers." books in Indiana to deal with the Ku Klux This same theme was picked up by New Klan, which was a power in the state in York Times Washington correspondent the '20s. The IU administration and town Hedrick Smith, in the "News of the Week officials, however, seem more concerned in Review" June 1: with victimizing student activists than deal­ "Some high officials would like to see the ing with the recent upsurge of Ku Klux President pass the word down the mili­ Klan activities in Monroe County. tary chain of command to apply 'the Badly shaken by the massive strike and pressure strategy' with more discretion­ resultant radicalization of the student body, in other words, taking greater account of the administration is hoping the indictments the sensitivities on the home front to con­ will demoralize the students. The result, tinuing casualties." however, promises to be the opposite. In It is blunt and cynical reasoning on anticipation of the indictments, a defense the part of the imperialists. They want to committee has been functioning for several maintain "maximum battlefield pressure" weeks with broad support. in order to carve awayattherevolutionary On the day the indictments were an­ forces. But they want to do this, at least nounced, a YSA press release denouncing for now, at some level of GI deaths that the witchhunt and pledging national YSA doesn't attract too much attention. support to the defense committee received Another grisly aspect of the military­ wide coverage on the local news media. public relations war is discussed by B. To make a contribution to the defense Drummond Ayres Jr. in a Saigon dis­ fund, make checks payable to: Students patch to the June 2 Times. He describes the Legal Aid }<'und, c/o Prof. Alex Rabino­ virtual phobia the Army has developed wich, History Department, Indiana Uni­ in its quest for a "kill ratio" and "body versity, Bloomington, Indiana 4 7 401. Pvt. Joe Miles count" which will supposedly persuade the